Cool And Clear And Calm On The Lake, Terror In Brussels, Belgium (Equinox)

6:30

7:26

It's 7:30 and I just got up off my couch to take a photograph of a duck, sitting on our lake wall, but my movement scared him and his mate away.  The sun is bright, filling the living room with its light, the lake wrinkled, a slate blue.  It's a crisp morning of 25º, as I listen to the tragic news of the terrorist bombings in Brussels.  How very terrifying and sad.

Noon

Yesterday was cold, a frosty morning, with intermittent snowflakes during the day, painting spots of the lawn white, only to have them disappear when the sun came back out.  A strange spring day in Chautauqua.  I did, however, brave the frozen tundra of Lakewood, making it to yoga on time, a good class and my knee seems to be finally healing.  I then did some shopping for our Easter Dinner tonight with the McClures, who will be leaving for Pittsburgh tomorrow.  I picked up a boneless leg of lamb, the first time we have had one in a long time for some reason.  When we lived in Istanbul, it used to be our go to Sunday dinner, buy the leg of lamb on Saturday at the open Besiktas market, then roast it on Sunday with potatoes.  I can remember sitting at our kitchen table, having a glass of Buzbag (a cheap Turkish red wine which costs 50 cents a  bottle), having helping after helping of lamb with gravy.  Good memories.

Anyways, I also picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner, then stopped at Wegman's to get what I couldn't find at Sam's and finally made it home around 12:30. I had a leftover hot dog and some koftes with tomato sauce for lunch and finished the first episode of Game of Thrones although I am not sure what is going on other than lots shagging and violence, part of the lure of this series I suppose.

Our Hungry Neighbor

Evie then drove off to the Y, with little enthusiasm I might add, but she went anyways, then did a bit of shopping as well before returning home around 3:30.  I spent my afternoon as usual, reading, taking a nap, making some Turkish tea and munching on a tres expensive bag of cookies we bought from the Reverie Creamery, a mistake because they are not that good.

Long Point at 6:30 p.m.

We finally were able to settle down with a glass of wine or two, some hummus and cheese and crackers to enjoy the end of day before dinner.  Around 7:00, Evie put together a salad, fried up some leftover baked potatoes into home fries, and we had the rotisserie chicken for our main course.  We were anxious to get back to OCCUPIED but limited ourselves to one episode and went on to watch the latest episode of BILLIONS.  We like Axelrod and detest his nemesis, Paul Giammati, supposedly the good guy.   Hey, what's wrong with rooting for a billionaire!  It seems to be the flavor of the month, perhaps the year.

Moonlit Night 

A Windy, Overcast, And Cold First Day Of Spring (Equinox)

Evie And Our Bundled Up Friends From Kihei, Maui

7:06

7:12

7:18

Well, it's 7:15 and I have been up for an hour, to a darkened sky, then one with tinges of rose, that have since disappeared and the sun has yet to rise.  Open sky off to the north, a crease in the gray, so I am not sure what the day will bring.  We have guests staying with us, high school buddy and his son who live on Maui.  Why visit Chautauqua on the first day of spring if you live in Hawaii?  To go to Red's Pancake House for breakfast, of course.

Yesterday was cold, in the low 30's most of the day and windy but with some sun.  I had a good yoga class at 9:00, tough enough that I was dripping droplets of sweat.  I was not the most enthusiastic student but I persevered.  I came straight home because I knew our friend, John Allen and his son JD,  from Hawaii were coming either late morning or early afternoon.  So when I got home, Evie was busy making Turkish koftes (meatballs), a tomato sauce, so dinner would be ready.  I quickly gathered up the trash for my weekly drive to the Transfer Station.  When I got home it was time for lunch, leftover pizza and the beginning of another afternoon of March Madness.

Evie decided to forego the gym and go for a long walk through the campground, with her headphones, so she was out for a good hour, getting in a great walk.  Our friends called about 2:30, from Peek and Peak, where they hoped to get in some skiing but the slopes had closed, alas, the day before.  There was some snow, however, so they were able to throw snowballs.

They arrived about 3:30, bundled up because they are obviously not used to the weather here and it was cold, especially the wind.  We relaxed for a bit, got caught up on their lives, then decided to take a walk over at Long Point.  We parked at the Marina and walked out to the tip of Long Point, so we could easily see our house across the water.  We took some photographs, of course, and were surprised to see a small beach at Long Point's tip.  We then decided to show them one of our 'clubs,' because it has such a great view of the lake and we ended up going inside to introduce them to some friends and we had a beer of course.

Long Point's Beach With John And Jon-Dom Allen

We were home around 7:00, just as it was getting dark, so I got the grill ready to cook the koftes and Evie got things ready in the kitchen.  Dinner was great, of course, our version of Turkish Iskender Kebab, pita bread, koftes, a tomato sauce and yogurt, a family favorite and both John and JD seemed to enjoy it.  Afterwords, JD regaled Evie with some card tricks, and the two of them played games while John and I talked about old times.  We were friends in junior high, high school, college, and we taught together for two years in Ohio.  When we went to Hawaii, he visited us our first year and ended up staying, teaching, and doing some acting.  He also managed to visit us twice when we lived in Istanbul, and has made it here to the lake three times in the past 15 years, usually around this time of year, so he can go to Red's.  Just kidding.  We ended the night looking at the Shutterfly albums that Evie makes of each of our summers, which is always fun, looking back at how quick our grandchildren change through years.  We stayed up until 11:30 when we all went to bed, tired from the fun day.