Overcast And Rain

7:57

A depressing morning on the lake, fifty shades of gray, with rain and it's getting colder, the temperature dropping into the 20's tomorrow after yesterday's 65º. It could be a long day with no kayaking, yoga, or a hike because of the unpleasant weather.

Tuesday was a surprise, with lots of sunshine and warm.  I was able to get in a paddle before yoga which was great. So after the blog and breakfast, I drove to yoga and it was a crowd, three of us and Danielle. I left the class with new aches and pains but it was the good kind.  I stopped for coffee, then shopped for a few things at Tractor Supply. I was home just afternoon and Evie had been busy tearing the attic apart, making piles of stuff to be thrown out, others to be donated. It looks like a week-long task.  

For lunch, I had a toasted cheese sandwich with lentil soup.  I thought I was finished with my series because they caught the serial killer but now there are unforeseen problems, as  Inspector Wistingr is accused of falsifying evidence. 

Woodlawn

Taking Down Ash Trees

The rest of the afternoon we were entertained by guys cutting down four huge trees in our neighbor's yards, three of them ash. They are using a machine that not only extends 50 to 100 feet but also cuts and grabs the piece, safely setting it down on the ground,  They worked most of the day and have thirty feet of trunk left to finish. The operator sits in a cockpit on the truck and skillfully manipulates the saw and claws. It's fun and amazing to watch his skill but very sad making to lose more trees. 

My Kitsch Rock Garden

While Evie talked with her sisters on Zoom, I did some work in the yard, working on rocks that mark our parking area and garden. Around 6:30, Evie finished her Zoom call, made a salad, and pulled the leftover chicken piccata and rice out of the oven where it was heating up. Colbert is on vacation so we are looking for other things to watch other than Jeopardy but ended up binge-watching the rest of Season One of Shtisel. I finished Opioid Indiana and would give it a C+, not a favorite but readable, and started Sharks In The Time Of Saviors, a novel set in modern-day Hawaii.  I am not crazy about it but will stick with it for another day or two.  

Clear Skies, A Rising Sun

7:12

7:15

Victoria/Woodlawn 

It's 7:15 and the sun has just risen, filling the living room with light, the sky light blue, the lake's surface ruffled from the light wind.  A few buffleheads are swimming in front of our house and all is well at Chautauqua Lake. I did get in a forty five minute paddle, down to Sandy Bottom and back, scattering buffleheads as I kayaked. 

Kayak Morning

Yesterday was a boring day as I had a cardiologist appointment at Cleveland Clinic in Ashtabula, an hour and a half drive.  I must be crazy to go that far but I lost a couple of doctors in Erie so I thought why not go with the best.  So after a morning of helping Evie some with our next big chore, going through the attic and getting rid of stuff, I left for Ashtabula at 11:45.  It seemed to be a wasted day as the appointment lasted about ten minutes and I was on my way home. 

I was home by 3:30 and Evie had been busy, tearing apart the attic, set aside lots of junk to be thrown away.  I helped transport it out to the garage and will take it to the Transfer Station on Saturday.  It actually felt good to make some headway with Kondo-ing or tidying up our attic.  It's not done and will take a couple of more days to get it the way we want it.  The hardest part is what to do with things we don't want but are still good. 

Long Point Late Afternoon

We decided to have a happy hour with a beer and popcorn, a good way to end our day.  Why does popcorn taste so good sometimes?  Anyways, it was spot on and we were both happy, Evie with the attic, me with my trip to Ohio over.  Dinner was easy, the leftover Turkish koftes, with tomato sauce, and a salad and we watched a Hometown and another episode of Shtisel before bed. 

Waking To A White Morning

7:37

What a surprise to open the blinds and see snow on the lawn on another windy morning.  It's going to be cold, in the 30s most of the day, in fact, for the next couple of days, putting a hold on Spring flowers.  Just as we think Spring has sprung, nature plays tricks on us. As I finish this, it's 8:15, and at least forty buffleheads are cruising in from of our house.

Thunder Bridge In The Rain

Today it's snow, yesterday it was rain most of the morning.  It was drizzling when I woke, discouraging any hope I had of kayaking.  So after listening to the news, writing the blog, I did up Saturday night's dishes, letting Evie sleep in late, a lucky girl.  Once Evie had her coffee and was ready to converse, we decided to be crazy and go for a walk in the rain around the Chautauqua Institution.  Neither of us felt very peppy as my Dad would say and we hoped the walk would perk us up.  It did some to be honest although we came home soaked after walking a couple of miles in drizzle and rain.  Obviously, we were the only crazies on the streets, admiring the brave shoots of green everywhere in the front yards of the homes.  

We both arrived home tired but hungry so Evie got busy making our breakfast, a Turkish omelet with tomatoes and feta cheese and toast,  We watched part of CBS Sunday morning before we both had enough and wanted to relax.  I read and napped for a bit and Evie prepped some of the dinner of chicken piccata, then watched some TV.  After my nap, I watched much of the Gonzaga/Oregon State basketball game but by the end, I had enough and suggested we watch a movie with Laura Dern called The Tale, a disturbing film about a woman who discovers she has repressed the fact that she was molested as a thirteen-year-old. It was intense, not a relaxing, fun Sunday afternoon film, and it's based on the filmmaker's own experience.  

Evie put together our dinner of chicken piccata and rice and we were enjoying Real Time With Bill Maher by 6:30.  The chicken hit the spot, nice and lemony, perfect with rice and asparagus. It was a good choice for a Sunday dinner.  We then watched three more episodes of the Israeli series Shteisel. Although it's set in an unfamiliar culture, you soon realize people are the same, no matter their background. They laugh, they love, they want, they fail, they endure.

Bring On The Rain

 

7:42

8:35

I was hoping to get in a paddle but when I woke, I realized it was supposed to rain most of the day and at the moment, 7:00, it has just begun. It's 50º and overcast, a light wind, the sounds of geese echo over the lake. 

In contrast to today's dreary morning, Saturday was a fine day, with lots of sun, warmth, a full moon, and weather so pleasant that we were able to enjoy cocktails and appetizers out on our front porch for the first time in 2021.  I was able to get in a good paddle around 8:00, then come home and finish up the blog and have breakfast.  It was our turn to have our bubble friends over for dinner so much of the day was spent prepping for dinner.  By 10:00. we had the house and kitchen clean, the trash ready to be taken to the Transfer Station.  So I was on my way, did my Saturday duty, and came home thinking about going for a bike ride.  I  got out my bike, pumped up the tires, and fastened my bike rack on the Outback.  I drove over to Bemus, parked near the bridge on a street, and took off, thinking I would go for a half-hour, down to the end of Lakeside Drive and back. It felt good, however, so I rode for an hour, through the park, out to Long Point, then back to Bemus and my car.  I was surprised how good I felt, that I wanted to bike out to Long Point.  Unfortunately, Evie thought I was going for a short ride so she was worried about why I was taking so long and called me just as I was on our road. 

Biking To Long Point

Lunch was the leftover mashed potatoes, made into cakes, fried along with a couple of eggs.  I watched my series on TV and they finally caught the serial killer, saved Wister's daughter.  I then read some, napped briefly but was in the TV room by 3:00 to watch March Madness, in this case, the Loyola/Oregon State game.  Unfortunately, it was a bore, neither team playing well and my team, Loyola, lost.  I did, however, realize that the women's game was also on ESPN and featured two of the best women b-ballers in the country, both freshmen.  So I watched quite a bit of the woman's game and it was much more interesting and fun than the Loyola game.  

Moon Rising At 7:33 PM

Evie had everything ready and organized for dinner early so she could relax much of the afternoon.  Around 6:00, Linda and Ron arrived and I had the whiskey sours ready along with cheese and crackers and we were able to sit comfortably on our front porch, The whiskey sours hit the spot of course and we commented on how fortunate we were to be outside and together.  Once we finished our drinks, Evie brought out steaming cups of Turkish lentil soup to begin our Turkish meal.  Once we finished the soup, Ron and I went out and grilled the spicy lamb koftes.  Evie had the pita bread and tomato sauce ready for our Iskender kebabs, a combination of toasted pita, lamb koftes, topped with tomato sauce and yogurt.  We also had a salad with a tahini dressing and garbanzo beans. Dinner was great of course, making us think of cookouts during the summer months.  We ended the evening in the living room, with slices of Junior's cheesecake, topped with raspberries. They left in a moonlit night around 10:00 and we decided to forget about the kitchen and leave it for this morning. 

A Changing Morning Sky

First Bufflehead

7:58

8:59

A gentle wind, a calm lake, overcast skies, with a bit of drizzle start a Spring weekend here on the lake.  It's 46º, may get up to the mid-50s later in the day. And yesterday's high winds caused little if any damage around here other than some deadfall. I did get in a good paddle, out for forty-five minutes, scattering buffleheads as I kayaked by, listening to sounds of loons, geese, crows, and song birds.

Kayak Morning

Buffleheads

Spring Sky

Amazing Morning Light

Not much happened yesterday, as neither of us got in a hike although we were both busy in the morning, less so in the afternoon.  After breakfast and blog, Evie put together a shopping list for Wegman's and I drove off to Jamestown, to drop off my W-2 forms, alas, as I am expecting to have to pay this year.  After filling out a form, verifying my information, I drove to Wegman's and shopped.  It was surprisingly quiet so I was in and out quickly, hoping I bought everything we needed.  

When I returned, Evie was busy finishing up the deep cleaning of our kitchen and started making a pot of mercimek corba, or lentil soup. For lunch, she made a salad with the leftover salmon and I like the salmon salad better than a filet, so I was a happy boy watching my series, Wisting.  My afternoon went as usual as I read and napped, then finished my novel, Summer Water by Sarah Moss, and started a new one called Opioid Indiana.  I liked Summer Water and seem happy with Opioid Indiana. Evie finished her chores and was able to relax much of the afternoon and was happy to know that we were getting a take-out for dinner, no fuss, no dishes.

I picked up a couple of burgers and fries from the Seezurh House which was busy, as was much of Bemus Point, lots of cars, few parking spaces.  The burgers and fries were fine; we have always thought that the Seezurh House has the best burgers around.  Since we finished our latest series, Beartown, we decided to try another one and started the first season of Shtisel, an Israeli series from 2013 which follows an ultra-conservative Jewish family. We liked it enough to binge-watch a few episodes before bed.

Showers And Heavy Winds

6:57

7:15

7:24

It looks like a  fall morning, with the dark cloud masses, the wind, the 57º weather.  There are wind advisories for the next twelve hours and even Niagara Mohawk, our power company is sending out warnings. Strangely, despite the threatening clouds, the sun has just come out at 7:30, brief as it may be. Literally, a couple minutes after I mentioned the sun, it has started to rain. 

8:31

Thursday was unseasonably warm, the kind of weather that makes you nervous, and I guess today's heavy winds are the result.  After breakfast and the blog, I drove to Westfield for a yearly physical, in the new digs for the Health Center. I had a good talk with my PA, had blood drawn, and was out, getting a cup of coffee at the new coffee shop in Westfield by 10:30.  When I returned home, Evie continued with her spring cleaning, cleaning the cupboards for dishes, vases, storage bins we no longer need.  I decided to fill the potholes in parts of our road, so I drove back to Mayville and filled two buckets with ground-up asphalt called millings. There's a huge pile on the side of the road and I talked with a worker who said it should not be a problem to take a couple of buckets. I then filled most of the potholes with millings, saving some for touch up.  It should last through till next Spring when I will have to do it again.  

Lunch was the leftover pizza from Pace's and my show, Wisting.  I then did the usual, read, and took a nap while Evie continued to stay busy in the kitchen, scrubbing our kitchen cabinets, then treating them with Murphy's oil soap, then polishing them.  They look great.  Not to be outdone, after my nap I worked on our back porch, cleaning and washing out some of the stains and putting away winter stuff in the garage's attic, pulling out some of the summer junk. 

We were able to relax with sparkling cider spritzers and listen to the pundits discuss Biden's first press conference.  We both felt he did well, struck the right tone.  Fox News as expected, was hilariously petty, making fun of his use of notes among other things. Dinner was one of our favorites, salmon marinated in miso, soy, vinegar, and maple syrup, garlic spinach, salad, and rice.  We watched Colbert then binge-watched the last three episodes of Beartown, a series on HBO.  It becomes intense when a scandal hits a hockey crazy small town in Sweden, threatening their livelihood and arena.  In some ways, it's Friday Night Lights set in Sweden, not Texas, and it's hockey, not football.

 

A Calm Lake, A Clear Sky

Happy Eighteeth Birthday To Our Granddaugther, Marlena 

7:20

7:34

In contrast to yesterday's stormy morning, today is classic, with a tinge of rouge above the hills, a light blue sky, and a comfortable 46º.  We should have a pleasant morning before the clouds and rain move in later in the day. When I walked outside just after 6:00 to take my first photograph of the morning, I was greeted by the distinctive cry of a loon, off in the distance,

As I said above, yesterday started with rain and gray skies but by 11:00, after we had accomplished a few things, the sun began to peek out from the clouds and we decided to get in a walk around Long Point, hoping it would not be too wet.  It wasn't.  We started out, at least I did, to have a short walk but by the time we got to the crossroads, whether to walk down to the tip of Long Point or not, Evie voted yes so we walked close to three miles, taking over an hour.  It was, however, a pleasant walk, not too warm, with scattered clouds, occasional sun, and blue skies.  

Forest Floor Colors

Time Out

We did not get home till 12:45 and it was lunchtime, alas, so Evie made me a salami, mustard, and pickle sandwich before getting busy on a project and I watched my Swedish noir, then read some of a new book, Summer Water, and briefly napped. We did not do much the rest of the afternoon until 4:00 when Evie got out the scissors and gave me a quick haircut as I was getting wooly. We both showered, then, put on something other than sweats because we were going out for dinner.

We left at 6:00 for pizza for the oldest pizza shop in the Jamestown,  Pace Pizzeria, the favorite of our next-door neighbors. We were not sure if it would be busy but it was half full, with what looked like regulars, many in their upper 70s like us.  We ordered the 17-inch pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms and it was great, the best we have had in quite a while, with a light crust, superb pepperoni, and not too much cheese.  And they served it piping hot, so we had to let it sit for a few minutes before enjoying it. We will go back.  After dinner, we decided to stop at Farm Fresh Foods, for a couple of donuts, feeling guilty about it but we wanted a donut.  We walked to the door, but it would not open.  We looked at the hours and it closed at 7:00 and I looked at my watch and it was 7:02.  The gods intervened, keeping us healthy, so we left without donuts. 

We drove home in daylight, a setting sun forcing us to use our visors.  We quickly settled into our TV room, watching Colbert interview a hilarious Dana Carvey.  We then watched a Hometown and ended with a shocking episode of the Swedish series, Beartown, about a fanatical hockey town. 

Stormy Weather

7:14

7:36

What a difference to wake up to a windy day, choppy lake, gray skies, and rain, in other words, a Spring morning. It's a pleasant 50º and will get up into the '60s later in the day. No kayaking this morning because of the wind and rain and choppy seas.  

Kayaking Tuesday Morning

Victoria/Woodlawn 

Yesterday was a shopping day as we have been putting off the big push at Wegman's for over a week.  The morning for me was a busy one, as I was able to get in a short paddle before driving off to Eight Limbs for a yoga class, one of two practitioners.  We had a rigorous class, as I left with my hamstrings screaming, enough. I was having another dentist appointment at 11:30, so I had a few minutes to waste so I ran into Aldi's and picked up a few things, My appointment was to check on the post that was implanted ten weeks ago, make sure it was fine, then take Xrays for my new crown. It took twenty minutes and I was out of there, ready for a new crown in a couple of weeks.  Since I was out, I browsed a store called Runners which has everything from fertilizer, to hay, to fishing stuff, to clothes, to wrenches, etc. I walked out with a four-dollar pair of work gloves.

I was home by 12:30 and Evie made me a salami sandwich to go along with a bowl of spicy ramen and I started a new series, a Swedish noir called Wisting. Talk about gray, the sun never shines in this Swedish town where a serial killer is on the loose.  Around 1:30, Evie left for a shopping day at Wegman's and I read some, still not happy with my book, and took another good nap.  It's hard to say why one book grabs me, another I just cannot get into.  Well, I think I found something I like, an unlikely novel called Summer Water by Sarah Moss.  In it, a middle-aged woman wakes up at a vacation cottage in Scotland, looks back at all the things she's missed in her life, and goes for a long run, thinking about her life.  Why this grabbed me is a mystery while Deacon King Kong didn't.  Evie returned home by 3:30 and it took a while to put everything away,  But by 5:00, we were relaxed and Evie was ready for a Zoom call with her sisters, a Tuesday afternoon routine since Covid19.  For dinner, we had a rotisserie chicken, with mashed potatoes, sweet-sour green beans with bacon, and a salad, easy and good.  After we ate, I realized while doing up the dishes that we had no hot water which meant calling up the plumber this morning. Yuck.  

We watched a Colbert, Jeopardy, then a new series I have been wanting to watch on HBO called Beartown, set in Sweden, as a serious hockey town struggles with its past. It is based on a novel by Fredrick Backman who also wrote one of our favorite books A Man Called Ove,  We watched the first episode and though it's somewhat predictable, teen romance, and old neighbor grudges, we liked it.

  

Lake's Open

6:45

7:28

I could get used to this, a morning of cloudless skies, sunshine, and a calm lake.  it's been like this for the last five days and I am wondering if I am living on Chautauqua Lake, home of Chautauqua gray skies.  I am not complaining, just wondering.  

Kayaking Yesterday On A Partly Frozen Lake

Kayak Morning

Into The Sun

Ice Along Victoria

Yesterday, after writing the blog, I realized that the lake was partially open so I put on my life jacket and was able to avoid the ice and paddle all the way down to Sandy Bottom and back.  It felt great to be on the water again, and this morning, the lake is completely open, free of ice, just mallards swooping down on its surface.  We knew Monday would be another nice day so we decided to drive to Erie, to Presque Isle State Park, a ten-mile-long peninsula, which snakes around Erie, the home of some of the best inland beaches in the US.  

On The Rocks

Floating Homes

Catching A Huge Catfish

It took us close to 50 minutes to get there and we decided to explore the park, driving down some of the roads to beaches, lighthouses, marinas, places we had not seen before.  We walked out to the Oliver Hazard Perry monument but it was too windy to enjoy for long.  We ended up at one of the vast beaches on the north side of the peninsula, insulated from the wind, and walked the beach before ending up at a picnic table, for a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A couple of others were walking their dogs and one family and their kids were enjoying beach life.  Presque Isle also has an asphalt path circling the peninsula and it was busy with walkers, inline skaters, and bikers, enjoying the day. 

Lighthouse Point

Beach Walk

Walk To Perry Monument

Family Beach Time

We did not get home until 2:30, having driven 100 miles to the beach and back.  We were surprisingly tired from our jaunt and I quickly fell asleep reading, waking in a daze from a heavy sleep.  Evie got a few things done in the kitchen and relaxed.  We decided to celebrate the opening of the lake, the beginning of water life on the lake, with a Manhattan and good cheese.  It was a good choice and we had enough eggplant and pasta leftover from Monday for dinner.  We watched some of the Ohio University game with Creighton but it was clear they were not playing well and they lost by 15 points, sadly because they are a much better team than they showed.  We ended the night with Home Improvement shows and the terrible news from Colorado about another shooting.   

An Acrobatic Squirrel

Squirrel Time At The Feeder