A Dismal Saturday, Cloudy and Rainy

7:58

Paddling at Dusk

A Lake of Reflections

Enjoying the calm

Woods at Chautauqua Institute

Up at my new usual, 6:00 to utter blackness, a few lights flickering off toward Maple Springs.  I am listening to Click and Clack, waiting for Only A Game, my favorite sports program.  I am not sure what today will bring because of the weather.  We are excited, however, about later afternoon because our neighbors are having a clambake.  Like my family, they grew up in the Cleveland area having clambakes every fall.  We have missed it the past two years because we were out east visiting friends but this year we are able to make it.  They, Jim and Barb Fox, drove in yesterday afternoon from Cleveland, with the clams on ice from Euclid Fish.  What memories I have of going to Euclid Fish with my Dad as a kid, picking up the clams, the boiler, bringing them home, spending hours in the basement cleaning the clams because they were sandy, my Mom cutting up the chickens and vegetables, in a bag,  shucking the corn and, of course, the pouring of the beer in the bake by a pregnant women. I can only remember my sister Ellen doing this back in the early 1980's.

We were lucky because yesterday because it was a beautiful day to be on the lake, warm enough to sit outside, to walk or kayak, all of which we did.  We straightened things around the house early morning, then went to Mayville, to get our flu shots, and shop some at Topps.  We then stopped at the CI and took a walk around the still leafy streets.  Lots of building going on and it  seems every week we see a new house going up, or an old house being torn down.  Construction always seems to be booming in the CI.

In the afternoon, Evie went out on the dock to read and I joined her briefly before going off to pick up my boat, to take it up to be stored.  Unfortunately, I had quite a bill as the steering cables had to be replaced again, something which was done three years ago.  I dropped the boat off at my neighbor's garage, up on Carpenter Pringle, so that's done.  Now all we need is for the dock to be taken in and summer/fall is officially over, alas.  About 5:45, we realized the lake was smooth, like oil, as the sky was a threatening gray.  We jumped in our kayaks, went straight across to Long Point, then back along Victoria and Woodlawn, and it was lovely to be out on the water at dusk, as the sun was setting, the storm clouds coming in to the area.

For dinner, Evie made a shrimp pasta, with lemon, garlic, and wine, and with salad and garlic bread, we were happy.  We watched a quirky Norwegian movie, Turn Me On, Dammit.  I won't go into great detail other than to say it's about a seemingly over sexed teen age girl, who ends up being ostracized by her high school friends for something she said.  She runs away for a weekend, to a college friend in Oslo, where she is accepted as normal and treated as an adult for the first time. She comes home changed, the boy she likes shows interest in her, and all is well in this boring little town.  One detail I did like---every time the school bus passed the sign announcing her village, she and her friends would give it the finger.  Neither Evie nor I was crazy about the movie, nor did we like the teenager much until the end when her boy friend announces he cares for her to the entire school.  Not your Pretty in Pink teenager flick.

Warmer and Overcast Morning

7:37

Long Point

Long Point

Merganser in Flight

Fall Maples

Victoria Woods

Kinney's Waterless Run

Up later than usual, around 7:30 to another gray morning. mists and fog on the lake, a warm 62 degrees though it's now 8:30 and the sun looks as though it's trying to break through the barrier of fog.

Yesterday was a Chautauqua gray day though it hardly rained, just 2/10ths of an inch over the past twenty four hours so you could be outside if you wanted; it just wasn't sunny.  Evie made more cookies for our trip to Darien, CT, tomorrow, for the grandchildren of course, as well as a baked ziti for dinner our first night.  Later, she went shopping in Lakewood and went to Master Cuts.  I  stayed home, a  bit bored, but found my way.  Though it was foggy, it reminded me of a Japanese painting, so I went kayaking on the smooth, windless lake, gray and black colors, mostly, and took photos as you can see, trying to get a picture which reminded me of a Japanese print.  It was fun.  Later,  I walked the Woodlawn/Victoria woods, still dripping from the rain, marking a path as best I could, getting ready for my winter walks.  I also got the urge to get more gravel for my driveway, drove to Tri James but they are closed, either for the year or just the afternoon.  Sad.  I then came home and gave the Pilot a good cleaning, both inside and out, perhaps because I have decided to spend money on the Accord, keep it for another three or four years, the Pilot as well.  I just don't want to have a monthly car payment and both cars are in decent if not good shape. I also read some, as I am finding Hitch 22 very interesting.  Christopher Hitchens has always been an iconoclast and he lead an amazingly interesting life, seduced by Marxism when he was younger, an atheist all his life, a screaming liberal,  he changed somewhat in later life, supporting Bush and the Iraq War.  Many of his attitudes, especially towards religion were formed in his fascistic prep schools in England, with daily forced religious services, compulsory games, and kowtowing to authority.

We had meatballs and bulgar for dinner, even better than the night before and watched the first episode of The Forsythe Saga, a mini series made about ten years ago, with Damian Lewis, from Homeland, as the major protagonist.  It's a bit dated but pretty good, a somewhat older version of Downton Abbey, as we watch one of the wealthy families in London begin to lose their way, culturally and financially.

An Overcast Sunday of Leisure

7:12

Whitney Bay Start Up

7:36

Near Snug Harbor

Soffel Wedding Party

Up at 7:15, a mostly gray sky, clouds huddles off over Bemus, about 47 degrees, with rain forecast for the day, early and late.  We had better get our kayak and hike in before the rain comes.  Right now there's some light out towards the east, though the sky is mostly gray, the lake a slate gray and placid, a few fishing boats.

I am getting tired of talking about a leisurely day lest you think we have nothing ever to do.  It's just that there's nothing we have to do; it can always, usually, be put off till tomorrow.  It was so nice yesterday morning that we jumped in our kayaks, and paddled down to Whitney Bay, passing fellow kayakers, one a woman, who lives down on Wells Bay, right next to Sandy Bottom, an avid kayaker like us.  It was an easy paddle down, a bit more challenging coming back.  There is a new house being built in Magnolia, next to the huge monstrosity of a house on Whitney, dwarfing everyone else, which was built a couple of years ago by some wealthy magnate.  It's the kind of house that never appears occupied or busy, where no one is ever on the dock or yard, yet the house could easily hold 15 to 20 people it's so large.  There are two or three other huge shells of a house that appear this way, never occupied or busy yet monstrous in size.

Because it was sunny, Evie read in the side yard, then when the wind waned, we both read out on the dock, hoping to take a boat ride.  Unfortunately, we missed our chance, the wind picked up, so we walked Bemus around 4:30, getting a glimpse of the Soffel (our neighbors) granddaughter's wedding, at their son's house on Lake Side Drive.  We walked by just as the  wedding pictures we were being taken.  Fortunately, it did not rain, though it may have been somewhat cool.  When we walked back, the wedding party and guests were all in the front yard of the Lenhart Hotel, with a chef from Forte grilling appetizers in the yard, as everyone mingled and enjoyed themselves.

We decided to have an easy dinner, our left over stir fry, just as good the next day, as Evie combined the rice with the stir fry, added an egg, and we had fried rice for dinner.  We finished up watching Damages, at last, and look forward to watching some thing else.

Time to kayak over to Long Point and go for a walk before the rains come.

A Lazy Monday Morning

7:29

Dinner with Leonards, daughter Beth, and Pat Jones

Walk in CI as Storm Clouds Loom

Chilly has become the adjective to describe late September mornings,  It's 44 degrees, nice and crisp, with a mix of clouds and sun though we just had a brief spat of rain  The lake looks like a sheet of slate, smooth and gray black. as I sit here contemplating my day.  What to do?  Such a problem.  Perhaps a hike, or kayaking, then getting ready for 36 Hours In Buffalo, tomorrow and Wednesday.  Just walked out on the dock and the lake once again has a disgusting film of green algae on it and it has been that way on and off for a few weeks now.  Troubling.

Yesterday was a typically great Sunday, perfect for your NFL fans, except I saw it was raining in Cleveland.  Here it was a beautiful fall day.  We went for a long walk in the morning, at the CI, and ran into Jim and Maureen Lovengo.  He owns a pharmacy in Lakewood we like, and she works as the Assistant Director of the Department of Religion.  As we were talking, she mentioned that they were hard at work on next year's program, one of them being a week on Turkey:  Model for the Middle East.  I hadn't realized that this was a theme, so I was quite excited.  She gave me her card and asked that I send her any recommendations I had for speakers.  So I sent off five names of my students, all whom are well known world wide, three are professors at Harvard, one at Duke, and one CEO of a major textile firm.  Any one of them would be great and I know them all, though have not seen most of them since high school at Robert College.  You can tell I am excited.  I am going to email all my Turkish friends about this, as most probably don't know the CI exists, let alone the fact that a week will be devoted to Turkey. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and watching football for me, prepping dinner for Evie, as we were having the Leonards, their daughter Beth, and Pat Jones over for dinner.  We had a fun night, as everyone seemed to enjoy not only the dinner but the conversation.  I got a bit carried away, however, with my description of my visit to the monasteries on Mt. Athos in Greece.  I hope they were not too bored.  Evie made a great meal, a pork roast with a pan sauce, home made apple sauce, a Turkish cheese borek, salad, and fresh corn off the cob.  Every thing was devoured, with just enough left over for tonight's dinner, I hope.  For dessert, we had a marvelous chocolate torte with raspberry sauce which Pat made.  They stayed until about 9:30.  We then decided to do the dishes, staying up like a couple from the 1960's, washing and drying the dishes after a party.  For some reason, we like to do this, to wash and dry dishes, avoiding our dishwasher. There's something about both washing and drying dishes which is settling, relaxing, the routine of doing something over and over again.  I sound like a Buddhist.  We watched a bit of the Emmy's then went to bed around 11:30, a late night for us.