Gray Morning With A Smudge Of Pink

Although it was dark when I got up, about 6:30, I decided to write as the sky to the East is cloudy but the rising sun gives sky just above the hills a pink tinge, the line just above bright pink, the sky above lighter, a combination of pink and gray, and the sky a tinge of pink in gray, colors one could never imagine on a palet. It signals, I assume, a rainy day. Even the lake, dark as I arose, is now a gray with a surface of pink, just visible, and the sky turns more gray, less pink, as the sun rises and is obscured by the clouds. It's 46 outside, so not as cold as yesterday and we have yet to have a frost here at the lake, though in some areas, they have had frost. As I finished this sentence, the pink has all but disappeared, and all is gray. Two herons landed on the lawn but took flight when I moved to the window; I have also seen many King Fishers the past week or two, though I would assume they would have headed south by now. We walked in the Institute just before lunch, a crisp, invigorating walk in between spells of rain. We timed it well for once; we are going on kayaking for a half hour before sitting down to mannies, dinner, and a movie, the good life. We have had perhaps a half inch of rain over the past 24 hours, and the lawn, once again, is completely covered by golden leaves. Our trees are losing their covering more quickly than others.

SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY: Gary Shteyngart

A wild read, my first attempt at Shteyngart's fiction and I found it interesting and imaginative, a bit like 1984, but recognizable, with his take on now degraded USA, no longer admired, mired in debt, governed by fear and Big Brother, as China and India take over the world. The hero Lenny Abramov works for a ridiculous company called Post Human Services, a group that attempts to sell immortality to the super-rich. The thought police, called the American Restorative Authority, generally hassles the poor, the 'other,' any immigrant, thought there are not many who want to come to the US anymore. The story opens with Lenny in Italy, selling his goods, and just before heads back to the US, he falls in love with a young Korean girl named Eunice Park. We learn about Lenny through his diary, about Eunice by his emails home to a friend, her mother, and sister. There are certainly anti Republican touches, as the major new channel is Fox Liberty Prime and Fox Liberty-Ultra. The country is run by Rubenstein, a martinet, and every carries an apparat box, a small computer which gathers information of the wearer, I think, and also allows the wearer to search. Everyone carries one, as books are frowned upon, though Lenny has a huge library. Eunice ends up coming back to New York, with its empty buildings, mobs of poor, Central Park filled with vagrants, doctors on the dole because Medicare is bankrupt, as is the government, a one party dictatorship calling itself the Bipartisans, it's a wonder she returns, and to Lenny. I enjoy the texting between Eunice and her friend Grillbitch, totally uncensored and pragmatic, with little sense of conventional morality, just consuming, the latest sexy clothes from AssLuxury. It's a dismal look at at the future, but unfortunately, with my pessimism, believable. Still, the major characters, like the upper middle class, somehow manage to overlook the 'other', live, and consume. By the way, the military has been involved in an excursion into Venezuela, and the returning soldiers, denied their combat pay, are marching on the capital, for their money, which the government no longer has because of the dwindling dollar. The word they use for getting rid of the undesirables, is Harm Reduction. And everywhere one moves, their are National Guard, checking apparats, making sure one is not part of the Harm Reduction. As Lenny and Eunice hit Cervix, the hot club, helicopters descend on Central Park, killing blacks and hispanics, or "low net worth individuals," which makes those who are not one of them feel pretty dam good. When China's Central Bank comes to the US, he describes the country as 'an unstable, barely governable country presenting grave risk to the international system of corporate governance and exchange mechanisms,", in other words, a third world country, run by a racism one party system, call the bipartisans, with mottos like "a flag featuring a tiger pawing at a miniature globe and athe words 'America is back! Grrr...Dont' write us off. Ain't no stopping on now. Together we will surprise the world."

As the novel progresses, Lenny and all the elderly are thrown out of their apartment, as the undesirables are shuffled off to various low rent areas, as high rises will be built in their old areas for the wealthy, the Chinese, Norwegian, and Indian...Americans as such have become second or third world citizens, nothing works, the roads, services, everything is in shambles. And what's worst, Lenny's boss, Joshie Goldman, cuckholds Lenny, gradually wooing away Eunice, with promises of taking care of her parents, bringing them into safe desirable apartments in the city, and taking care of her sister. Lenny finally finds his parents after the Rampage, when the National Guard and police wiped out any of the undesirables who dared to challenge the status quo. His parents are barely surviving, practically starving, so Lenny takes care of them, buys them food, and generally empathizes finally with their predictment, growing up so to speak, when he realizes his parents life is 'not all about him." After Eunice leaves Lenny, we find he leaves the US, moves to Canada, then Italy, and becomes famous, as his Diary is published, and becomes a hit world-wide, mostly because it's a novelty, a BOOK. Even Eunice becomes well known, runs off with a younger man. leaving Joshie behind, and his business, Post Human Services, proves to be a charade, as all kinds of unexpected consequences follow their supposed 'miracle cure,' bankrupting the company, as it becomes a high class spa. The novel ends with a whimper, with Lenny, not Larry Abraham, in Italy, living out his life, in a rural, environment, as it becomes clear, that because of humans, the world as they know will come to an end in a generation or two, because of pollution, like of care of the environment, global warming, all the ideas that the right makes fun of. Lenny's last scene is to meet two young women, who are playing the Italian roles of his Diary. He can hardly stand them, literally shuts them off, and the novel ends in quietness and darkness,'black and complete.'

Foggy Morning on the Lake

I awoke about 6:15, came downstairs, put on the coffee, heated my milk, before sitting down to absolute darkness with a beginning blue of fog, as light made clear it was foggy. As it lightened, I began to make out the outline of the dock, but little else out towards the lake, though the trees and Leonard's dock pieces are clear, thus one can see perhaps 50 feet ahead, much to foggy to kayak. It was also 36 degrees when I woke, so there may or may not have been a frost. Sundial of the Seasons spoke about the old fashioned idea of bundling, where farmers would build a wall of sticks and leaves around their homes to keep out the draft, a first form of insulation. I could probably do the same thing with bales of hay, or more modern, a wall of plastic, held up by stakes. This morning I go off for physical therapy on my knee, at 9:00, and I think it will be my last time as the knee is getting better, and the help there is negligible.

For the most part, we led a lazy day; Evie did her usual things in the kitchen, organizing but neither of us felt that energetic, so we took advantage of the beautiful, cool day and read on the dock for an hour or so, serenaded, unfortunately by the pneumatic roofer hammer at Joe's and Dan's infernal leaf blower. We swear he is posssessed. About 4:00, the wind calmed down, and we went kayaking on a glassy lake, over to Long Point, along to Warner Bay and back, a great way to end the afternoon. We went over the Fred and Judy Gregory's for a cocktail; he made me a perfect manhattan, two ounzes of BV, a ounce of Bianco vermouth, a bit of bitters, a splash of water, and a slice of lemon...quite nice. We met the Mc Kibbens, Jack and Roberta, who ironically have a house in Euclid, as well as Chautauqua Shores. The second marriage for both, Jack is in his 80's, as he roomed with Bob Matthias, the decathalon champ, at Kiski Prep in 1948 and Roberta graduated from Willoughby North in 1960. Both have somewhat serious illnesses, unfortunately, so all was no happy. She particularly, is very talkative, perhaps because of her meds. He less forth coming but amusing. He and Fred play lots of golf, and she is a great fan of Judy's art. As we left, Judy gave us some Swedish Ivy, a plant that blooms year round, just place it in water. We ate at Bellino's in the Hotel in Mayville, empty as usual except for us. Fred had heard the owner had lost a million the past year, every believable. We did not feel left out but the Mc Kibbens did most of the talking. Fred and Judy leave for Davidson on Sunday, which is too bad as we will not see them again till Spring when Judy has a show and lecture at SUNY Fredonia, in the Rockfeller Art Center. We got home around 10:00 and I quickly got back into Super Bad True Love Story.

Waiting for Dawn

It's that time of year where I am up by 6:00 and strangely, I look forward to the dark, especially to watching the sky slowly come alight and alive, though some mornings are much more spectacular than others. Usually, a clear morning leads to a line of light on the hills above Bemus Point, which gradually becomes lighter and lighter. A cloudy sky brings no line, just a gradually lighting of the entire sky. The sun, too, depends on the amount of clouds, hidden if cloudy, spectacularly bright and blinding, if clear. For now, I just see the blinking lights across the lake on Lake Drive, and a moving green light, obviously a fisherman, out to take advantage of the early morning. I like being in my mind at this hour, reading the papers on line, checking both email and Facebook, as I get ready for the day. I am not sure what today will bring; it depends on the weather, our mood, what we want to have for dinner, how energetic we feel. Last evening, we ended up enjoying our pot roast, especially the biscuits Evie made, soaked in gravy. We watched Mad Men and the The Good Wife, before I headed off to read, take a bath, and go to bed. As I finish this brief entry, the sky is beginning to lighten, as, instead of darkness, I can begin to make out the shapes of trees, leaves, Long
Point, to other shore. We decided to head to Erie, as the day was cloudy and did not bode well for working in the yard. Evie wanted to get a portable Sirius radio player and I wanted a watch; I got my watch, but the player is out of stock, unfortunately. By the time we were through at TJ's, Best Buy, and Target, the sun was out so we headed home through Westfield, stopping at the nursery to buy four new plants, Stokes something, which bloom in the late summer. We also got a huge basket of concord grapes, Evie's favorite. For dinner, Evie made chicken picada, with rice and veggies, quite yummy. We watched The Good Wife, two shows, some Cheers, an Office, and I went up to bed to read...a good day overall.

A Pink Morning

I got up at bit late, about 7:20, as I was awake from 4:00 until at least 5:30 for some reason. Fortunately, I got back to sleep. I do this about once a week, and am not sure of the reason why, other than the fact that as you get older, you sleep less restfully. Perhaps the increase of guilt, though I don't feel that guilty. I do end up worrying about things that arent' worth thinking about, especially in the middle of the night: will I have enough to retire, how much of a problem will it be to take my boat out of the water, silly things like that. As to this morning, there was a slight pink glow over the lake when I woke, which increased as the sun rose, but now as it gets higher, the pink has turned more and more to white, tinged with blue as the morning progresses. The lake is like a mirror, and though its after 8:00, I just saw the first boat. It's a perfect morning for kayaking, so when Evie rises and has her coffee, I assume we will be off. We want to take advantage of this good weather while we can and it's supposed to rain later this afternoon. It's dinner time, we have the pot roast warming in the slow cooker, the buttermilk biscuits are warm, the bread is rising, and we are settling down to mannies and guacamole. We did kayak early, out to Tom's Point, across to Long Point and then back. We then dug the Japanese willows out of the ground, put in three privets, and Evie cut the lawn. Because it was supposed to rain, we sat out on the dock and read, as Evie finished Toast, Roger Rosenblatt's story of living with his grandchildren after the death of their mother and his daughter. Evie loved it, as it's filled with insights and touching moments. By the way, the boat went out yesterday, so all we have left is the dock. Billy stopped over, and I gave him two TV's that we hoped to get rid of, so it was nice to have some one want them. It's Columbus Day, though the lake is not very busy, which surprised us. Kayaking was amazing, being surrounded by an irregular bowl of browns, golds, and yellows, with just a touch of red. Our yard just began to change a couple of days ago, awfully late, as we have had too much rain, at least that's our theory. Lots of leaves though, as Evie cut the front yard this morning, though this evening, it looks as though it was never cut, the leaves never mulched.

Sundial of the Seasons: Hal Borland

I heard about this book while listening to our local radio station, WJTN. A call in mentioned a book about nature, a must have she called it, that had a short essay for each day of the year. The essays were Borland's observations of the changing natural world as he observed it from his CT. home. Over his life, he wrote thousands for the newspaper or magazine, and chose the 365 best and put them into his book. So each morning, I try to read one of the essays, to start my day. Yesterdays was entitled Autumn Rain, not that appropriate for yesterday, as it was a beautiful day, but apt for the previous week when we had rain non stop for almost a week. He describes it thus: "There is a persistent generosity to an Autumn rain that breeds monotony and then slow irritation. The earth needs rain but does it need so much without pause? The wearer of soggy shoes and a constantly dripping raincoat wonders if there isn't some means of distributing the weather, particularly the wet weather. And still it rains." Today's essay is called "Let it Frost," and aptly, we had our first frost in the areas yesterday morning though it only got down to 38 degrees here at the lake, as we tend to be protected somewhat by the lake.

A beautiful fall weekend

Both Dale and Mac were with us Thursday and Friday, before heading off to Hudson Saturday morning. Fortunately, the week of rain, almost 5 inches in less than a week, stopped and we had a beautiful Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We took both to the Institute on Friday, walked the perimeter, visited the library, then head up to Westfield because I wanted Mac to see the Patterson Library, a marvelous rotunda built in the early 20th century. We then headed back on back roads, around the East side of the lake, had lunch of hot dogs and cauliflower soup, played bean bag, then had a fish fry at the Seezurh House, crowded as usual but we found a table fortunately. They left early so we had the weekend to ourselves, doing a bit of work, but mostly enjoying a kayak ride each morning on the lake, a walk along Lakeside Drive on Saturday, one through Long Point on Sunday after kayaking over to the marina, and reading on the dock in the delicious sun of Autumn, warm but not hot, so unlike the summer months. Evie finally finished her first Amanda George mystery and is now in to Toast, by Rodger Rosenblatt, the story of a couple like us, whose daughter died with two very young children, and how they ended up taking care of them for a couple of years along with their son in law. I hope to read it next, as I really like him, from his talks at CI last summer. He also has a weekly commment/essay on PBS.

Sundays are our favorite day, as we luxuriate in the ability to stay at the lake, rather than head home as we did for 30 years because of school. So now, we toast each other we a glass of wine, enjoy the afternoon, sun set, dinner, and an evening at the lake. Though we have really been here at year, because of the sabbatical, it's still special for us and we cannot quite believe we are here for good.

By the way, last weekend we spent in Bristow with the Bissell's, a great stay; we arrived on Thursday, left on Monday, which seemed about right. We don't want to overstay our welcome. Hayden had a great party on Friday for the girls in her class, and it cleared up so they could play outside. Evie brought the treasure chest, a big hit, and the girls enjoyed the pizza, the trampoline, and the fun together. Saturday we went to Hayden and Halle's soccer games, and were going to have Ellen and Wally over for dinner but Ellen was sick with the flu, so we had tenderloins to ourselves. On Sunday, we went into DC by car and metro, and spent a couple of hours at the Turkish Festival, at Freedom Square, a combination of Turkish dancing, music, food kiosks, and Turkish goods, like rugs,evil eyes, jewelry, and knick knacks. It was not as much fun as we expected, as it was crowded, the food lines were long, and the music and dance was not as good as we expected, plus we never saw anyone we knew, which we had expected. Ironically, much of the weekend was taken up with Coco, the new puppy, who was creating quite a stir in the household, as he was having a difficult time being house trained. I don't envy his masters, as he is still young, and he needs constant and consistent care to learn. Most of it seems to fall on Jill's shoulders, of course, the downside, I guess of owning a new puppy if you are the Mom. You do it all. We left around 8:30 Monday morning, drove home, just as we drove to Bristow, in constant rain. It took us close to eight hours, as we took our time, tried to enjoy the journey but it was not much to see, mostly grays, little color, alas.