9/11/26

6:43

8:17

It's a spectacular 9/11 morning here on the lake. I was up at 6:30 and out on the lake by 7:00 to watch the sunrise on a quiet, windless morning. The fact that it's 9/11 brings back the memory of teaching a class when I noticed a colleague setting up a TV in the hall. I went out to see why, just as the second Twin Tower was coming down. I continued teaching briefly after letting the class know what had just happened, and as a school, we weren't sure what to do, so we carried on, like most, not sure what this attack meant. Later in the day, we met as a school to clarify what had happened and reassure the students that they were safe. Evie was in Colorado, helping Jill with her newborn, and was unable to fly home because flights were cancelled for close to a week. Later, we found out one of our former students died in the attack.

7:02

Kayak Morning

Sun Rising at 7:04

Sun Hidden Behind Long Point

Into The Rising Sun

Great Blue At Long Point

Cormorant Off Of Tip Of Long Point

Bald Eagle

Osprey

Heron On Boat Cover

Thursday was an interesting day. I knew I had breakfast at 8:00, so if I wanted to get in a paddle beforehand, I had to be up by 6:15 and out kayaking by 6:45 to get in a forty-five-minute paddle. So that's what I did, and I was early for breakfast at 7:55. Lake Life Cafe is back to normal — we were one of only two tables with patrons, unlike a few weeks ago, when we had to leave early because it was so loud. I was home by 9:10, and Evie was up, enjoying the morning. I sat down, made another cup of coffee, and wrote the blog while Evie picked out photos to include. Once she had them chosen, I took them and arranged them on the blog — and that's where trouble started. I couldn't download the photos to the blog, and for the next hour or more, I tried to figure out what was going wrong, asking ChatGPT and various sources on the internet for help. I thought it might be malware or something like that, and since I kept being prompted every time I opened my computer to buy Total AV — which supposedly cleans up your computer — I bought it for $29, saving $69, supposedly. I let it do its work, which didn't seem to help. I turned my computer off and on, which also didn't help. Evie suggested I close Photos and reopen it, and voilà — I was able to download them. So I finally got the photos added to the blog at 11:30. What a way to spend a morning.

Zinnias

By 12:30, I was enjoying lunch and watching my Harlan Coben series, happy to have figured out the photo issue. I then went upstairs, read, and napped briefly, then talked with the guys putting in sewers about our yard. Because of heavy rains, a couple of sinkholes had appeared, along with some low spots that could use more dirt. They said that once they were done, they'd stop by with a truckload of dirt. So around 5:00, they worked on both of our yards for a half hour, filling the sinkholes and low spots so we can start thinking about the first step of putting in a new lawn: rototilling it.

Evie and I enjoyed a glass or two of wine before dinner. It was another quiet evening on the lake — not a boat in sight as the day waned. We both wondered where the fishermen and boaters were, usually so plentiful on the lake this time of year. High gas prices? Anyway, we had dinner around 6:45, a pasta dish Evie put together. We watched a couple of shows until Evie went up to bed, and I watched the first half of the Rams/49ers game, then the women's tennis semifinals. I was impressed by 27-year-old Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who defeated Coco Gauff in three sets. I watched the first two sets, then went to bed.

It's great to start the morning off with a hearty laugh: