56 Years

August 21st, 1965

6:59

It's just after 7:00 and I have been sitting on the front porch, the sun hiding behind the clouds until now when it peaked out and the porch instantly warmed up. We better get ready for another warm day in temperatures in the 80s.  It's 8:45 as I finish this after a forty-five-minute boring paddle, with no birds,  on a calm lake.

Kayak Morning

Friday was warm of course, with variable wind, making it uncomfortable to be outside in the sun but in the shade of our trees, where the wind could catch you, it was fine. Our early morning was as always, kayaking, blog, breakfast, then figuring out what to do during the day and what to have for dinner.  We came up with few answers so left it up to a whim.  By 11:00, however, we were at Lakewood furniture, looking at recliners although they had very few. The saleswoman did offer a suggestion for changing our TV room, which might solve a problem by moving the TV to the wall opposite the windows. We missed the owner, John, unfortunately so went off to both Home Depot and Wegman's to get some shopping done. It was busy of course but we split up which makes it quicker.

By the time we returned at 1:00, all I wanted to do was have my sub sandwich, watch a show and take a nap.  Evie, however, had different ideas so as lay down to read and nap, she fired up the mower and cut the lawn, taking time out every ten for fifteen minutes, for a water and photo break.  It was unbearably hot in the sun so when she finished, her clothes were soaked with sweat and she was ready for a swim to cool off. We ended up on the dock for an hour, enjoying a glass of wine and the breeze which had picked up, making it nice to sit in the sun. We were still unsure about dinner until I said a burger sounded good.  Evie agreed so I drove to the Lighthouse, an eight-minute drive, and picked up ground chuck, buns, and a pint of potato salad.

Evie had the frying pan ready so she put together two half-pound burgers, fried them up, added buns and we had a delicious dinner.  Burgers or pizza, better than a steak in my mind. We had another bad night of TV starting a ridiculous new series on Netflix called The Chair, about an English Department Chair at a college. It was silly, predictable, and it made the English professors look like doddering, old fools, out of touch with reality unless you were young or a minority. The ex-chair was a drunk, a dope addict, and a womanizer, like all chairs I suppose. O, no, I was an English Chair for over 25 years. We also tried something else but neither of us can remember the name except that we disliked it after 15 minutes. 

By the way, today is our 56th anniversary. Amazing to think we have been married that long, known each other for 61 years.  Yep, we were high school sweethearts. 

I will end with an observation from Paul Krugman with which I strongly concur: 

"To say what should be obvious, getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in public spaces aren’t “personal choices.” When you reject your shots or refuse to mask up, you’re increasing my risk of catching a potentially deadly or disabling disease, and also helping to perpetuate the social and economic costs of the pandemic. In a very real sense, the irresponsible minority is depriving the rest of us of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."