Another Well Washed Morning Sky

8:30

A half inch of rain overnight, finally, but thunder, lightning, and heavy winds, too. It's a glorious morning, blinding sun, quiet lake, and a refreshingly cool 55º.  I was awake at 5:30 but stayed in bed until 6:15, missing the sunrise but getting a bit more sleep.  For now, we have blue skies but it's supposed to cloud up later in the day, with more rains forecast for much of Wednesday.  We had better get the most out of our Tuesday.

Yesterday turned out to be a great day, especially in the afternoon when I returned home from the Subaru dealer, where I had an exhaust pipe replaced, which was damaged when we blew a tire on our return home from Dallas.  So I was at the dealer at 9:00 and didn't get out of there until 10:30.  Since I was in Jamestown, I stopped at the newly renovated and finally opened Labyrinth Press Coffee shop, one of my favorite stops in Jamestown but it has been closed for almost two years.  It will have its full vegetarian menu available soon as well.  After getting my coffee, I drove to Wegman's to start the process of shopping for the week long visit of our recently graduated grandson Nick and two of his buddies, soon to be off on their first road trip.  What and how much to buy for three active and fairly healthy conscious eighteen year olds.  No sodas, probably few carbs and lots of proteins.  And no junk food, alas.  So we will be eating healthy for a week!  I made the mistake of getting into a 15 or fewer items line when I realized the shopper had an entire cart full of groceries.  Maybe she can't read.  I went in another line and struck up a brief conversation with a woman, in a tank top, tights, huge tatoos on both arms, who had a huge bottle of vinegar, the kind we often drink in the morning for our health.  She takes it every morning, straight, and thinks it helps.  I did not ask what it helps. Anyways, I did not get home until 12:30.

I had an easy lunch of leftover chicken curry, watched some Game of Thrones and finished my book by Richard Russo, EVERYBODY'S FOOL, which I really liked.  After lunch, Evie worked in the yard, ended up finishing cutting the grass (rained out yesterday), and I took a brief nap and did some reading before joining her on the dock, to sun bathe for the first time this year.  It felt good to suck up the rays, not too intense yet, and just be out on the dock.  There was a light breeze, but it was warm enough for Evie to jump in and take a swim.  Around 5:30, we went in and Evie got dinner ready, breading the tilapia, baking it, and I made up some tartar sauce and shucked the Florida corn.  We had the tilapia with coleslaw and red skinned potatoes, and it tasted really good, making us wonder why we don't have it more often.  And we watched the last episode of the two year series 39º in February and both of us were in tears at the end.  It's quirky, different, perhaps not everyone's taste but both of us really liked it, the characters, both Swedish and Thai.  Where do writers come up with these stories and how do they make them so compelling.

We ended the evening with Bill Maher's Real Time, with his rants against Trump, the ignorant electorate and politicians in general.  I went upstairs to read and started the new Alan Furst thriller, A HERO OF FRANCE set in occupied France in 1941.

By the way, we  shocked our well last night, adding bleach to it, letting the bleached water sit in our house pipes overnight, so this morning, I began the task of running the hose on and off during the day, getting rid of the bleached water.  This is something we have been doing once or twice a year for the past couple of years as a precaution for our well.  It's easy as long as we prepare with lots of jugs of drinking water.  We will wait a day or two to drink the water but will be able to use it for washing later in the day.

A Brisk, Clean And Shiny Morning

Photo Enhanced By Our Daughter Beth With A Stylus On Her New iPad

5:58

It's 7:00 and I have been up since 5:40, in time to finally see the sunrise, about 5:52.  We had a brief but windy thunderstorm yesterday afternoon (taking down part of a neighbor's front yard tree), and it brought with it a change in weather.  This morning it's 55º and all seems well washed, by the quarter of an inch of rain.  Not much, but we will take it.

Yesterday, our first Sunday back at the lake in weeks, neither of us felt like our usual walk through the Chautauqua Institution.  I am not sure why, just lazy I guess.  Perhaps I was already tired from getting up so early, kayaking by 7:00 and back home by 8:30.  And Evie was probably still sleepy, having gotten up around 9:00.  So we had an easy morning, the extent of our chore was to check out if we wanted a couple of our neighbor's outdoors chairs which they were giving away.  We didn't. Around 11:30, we knew rain was coming, so we both worked in the yard, pulling the weeds and the climbing vines that tend to choke off our privets and rhododendrons.  By the time I was through crawling around the bushes, I had sweated through my shirt and boxers it was so humid.  What to do?  The obvious, we both went for a refreshing swim.

Free Range Organic Pastel Eggs

That swim energized us, made us hungry, so Evie quickly whipped up our Sunday breakfast, organic eggs, bacon and bagels and we watched CBS Sunday Morning, what else is worth watching on Sunday morning.  As usual, it was excellent, especially the episode on Carnegie Hall and their tribute to Muhammad Ali.

Thunderstorms And Rain

We then waited for it to rain, early afternoon, which it didn't.  We then decided to get something done, so I washed the car and Evie started to cut the lawn after a chat with the Scholtz's who we have not seen since October.  She waited a bit too long to cut the lawn, as she was 3/4's of the way through when the rains finally came.  Heavy winds, torrential rains on and off for about ten minutes, then a gentle rain for another half hour and it cleared up, as if Zeus changed his mind.  The dark, threatening clouds disappeared and it was a lovely late afternoon.  We had dinner inside, despite the sunshine, spaghetti and meatballs, with garlic bread, something I have been wanting for a couple of days. And we watched the series we started back in early may, 30º in February.

Kayak Evening

The Old Man And The Lake

After the first episode, we looked out the front windows and it was still spectacular out, the blues skies were beckoning, so we climbed in our kayaks and paddled across the lake, taking mucho pictures of the setting sun before returning quickly, as the sky was beginning to darken though it never did rain.  We then watched the boring and embarrassing debacle of the Cavs loss to Golden State.  I turned it off after the third quarter and went upstairs to bed, anxious to get back to something interesting and entertaining, my book, EVERYBODY'S FOOL.

Paddling Home At Sunset

A Busy Early Morning

5:48

View From Our Porch At 6:14

7:14

It's 8:30 and Evie is still asleep, lucky girl.  I, however, have been up since 5:30, awakened by the caws of the crows.  When I got up, I made the coffee, grabbed a cup when it was ready and sat out on our porch, listening to the sounds of various birds, as it drizzled on and off for a half hour.  Around 7:00, the lake looked inviting, calm and gray, so I put my coffee in a mug, put on my life jacket, put my camera in my pocket and went out and jumped in my kayak, seemingly the only boat on the lake. Usually, Sundays are very busy but I was out for at least an hour, paddling over to Long Point's Pavilion and back along Long Point and I saw only one boat, anchored off of Long Point fishing.  I wanted to go beyond Warner Bay but the wind picked up on that side of the lake and I had to fight my way back to Long Point and home.  By the time I got to Woodlawn, the lake was calm, like glass. It's a great way to start the morning but now I am ready for a nap.

Kayaking On A Cloudy Morning

 Wild Phlox Along Long Point State Park's Shoreline

Yesterday was a busy, back breaking day for both of us.  It started, as usual with a trip to the Transfer Station.  Then, however, I drove to the gravel/top soil/stone pit.  Even though it was a Saturday, it was open and Clyde was busy filling up trucks with his tractor.  I paid him a couple of bucks and filled up five buckets with topsoil.  We still have a couple of bare spots on our lawn.  I worked on them before we left but there was so little rain that the grass seed I put down hardly took.  So I raked both areas again, spread all the top soil on top of the areas, then spread seeds on top of the top soil.  I then decided I needed another layer of topsoil, so off to the Gravel Pit I went, filling up five more buckets with top soil, about all my back could take.  And I then spread it on the bare areas and hoped for the best, especially for some rain over the next couple of weeks.  Before I left for me errands, Evie and I cleared off the back porch and took down the winter curtain which encloses our porch. While I was gone, Evie washed down the curtain and the back porch, and then we just waited for it to dry.  We both went for a cooling swim after the lawn and back porch were done. It felt amazing, just like the day before and we were probably one of the few brave souls swimming in the lake.

Lunch was leftover curry and then I did some reading before taking a nap.  Evie kept busy until about 3:00 when the sun came out, the temperature got into the 80's, so we decided to take a boat ride, cruising slowly down to Whitney Bay and back.  There were lots of boats out and most had the same idea, a slow cruise, enjoying just being out on the lake.  When we returned, both of us had lost our mojo, so I did some watering and closed up the garage.

After showers, we drove to McClure's around 6:15 for dinner, a welcome respite from our busy day. We had not seen them since early May, so we had lots to talk about, our trip of course, and their always eventful life.  We sat outside, with beers and appetizers until the gnats or some kind of bug forced us inside for dinner.  Ron grilled four nice Delmonico steaks outside and Linda made twice baked sweet potatoes (fabulous) and a Caesar Salad.  It was a great dinner, a fun night, and good to see them again.  We didn't leave until just before 10:00 and as luck would have it, a program at the Chautauqua Institution just ended, so we had a hard time getting out of their road because of the never ending trail of cars heading towards Mayville.  We finally forced our way out and drove home in traffic when, usually, we are the only car on the road (in winter).

I am not sure what today will bring, perhaps some rain and a Cavs victory.  We can only hope.

A Sun Rise And Bass Boats

Kayak Morning

6:08

It's just 7:00 and both of us have been up since 6:00, a result of both the bright sunrise, peaking into our bedroom and the roar of bass boats, as they charged out of Long Point Marina, hot to catch some fish.  Summer is definitely here if not actually (June 21st). In the past hour, however, it has clouded up, mostly cloudy skies, a gray lake and lots of action, fishing boats and even a water skier.  It's 9:00 and we just returned from a nice kayak paddle, our first since we got back from Texas.  We were out just about an hour, saw a couple other paddlers out as well.  A good start to the morning.

Baby Ducks

We continued our 'getting ready for summer' days.  First on the list, at 10:00 was putting my boat in the water, always an anxious hour or two, wondering what could go wrong (the battery is dead, the impeller is clogged, or I forgot to put in the drain plug...all three have happened at one time or another in the past 15 years).  Well, all went well and with the help of my neighbor, Joe, it took less than an hour, from door to boat tied on our dock.  Relief.  While I was off, Evie had taken our front porch apart, washed down all the winter furniture covers, then the chairs, and finally, the porch floor.  Once she was done, we had our front porch back for the summer and we could hardly wait to have a glass of wine on the porch.

Cruising With Mama Duck

My other task was to put buoys in the water, marking off our swimming area from boats.  It takes awhile because I have to anchor the buoy to cement blocks, measure the length of rope, etc, not too difficult but it takes time.  I then drop them in the water and then swam out to make sure they were where we wanted them.  Boaters don't much like it because they have to avoid cruising in front of our dock but it does make it lots safer for swimming, especially with our grandchildren here.

Mid afternoon, we took our first boat ride even though the wind had inexplicably picked up, ruffling the waters.  Still, we cruised slowly over to Bemus, then along Lakeside Drive and home.  It's always thrilling, especially the first time in awhile, to be out on the water, a vast sky above, the water below, the wind hitting your face.

We returned around 5:30 and Evie quickly put together our dinner, a chicken, broccoli, and mushroom curry, with rice.  We then relaxed on our front porch for the first time since October, celebrated the beginning of summer with a Manhattan and cheese and crackers.  We stretched cocktail hour out till 7:30.  We then heated up the curry, the rice was made, and Evie put together a salad and we had dinner.  We watched two more episodes of The Americans, and we are now caught up.  Now what to watch?  We were in bed before 11:00, rare for us.

Today should be partly cloudy with thunderstorms rolling in this evening and tomorrow.  We need the rain.

Back In The Saddle Again

6:15

Well, it's 7:00 and I have been up for over an hour, to a lovely morning, the sun hidden at the moment by fog.  I feel like we never spent three weeks on the road as I sit here on my couch, sipping coffee, enjoying our view of the lake, listening to NPR.  And I don't feel like I have a daughter who just celebrated her fiftieth  birthday yesterday and was surprised by a visit from her sister, Jill.  Cool beans.

Fishing Off Our Dock

We quickly jumped back into routine yesterday as my day began with breakfast with four of the guys at the Bemus Point Inn.  It was good to see them again, to find our what I missed while I was away (not much).  A couple have been away fly fishing in PA which they tend to do this time of the year.  It sounds like fun.  When I got home, Evie had been busy, doing the wash from our trip, getting the house back in order.  I wanted a book from the Bemus Point Library, Richard Russo's EVERYBODY'S FOOL.  I started reading it on my Kindle but it was soon to expire and I wanted to finish the book.  So Evie quickly put together a grocery list and I was off to Bemus, then to Ryder's Cup for a coffee, an aloha to the regulars and two dozen free range chicken eggs.  It was then time to hit Wegman's, for the essentials, a hundred bucks worth but only one dinner, typical.  And I was home by 12:30, for a lunch of a bagel and cream cheese, all I wanted after a breakfast of hash and two poached eggs.

For some reason, I took only a ten minute nap and I didn't feel like reading so I got to work outside. Both of us did.  First, it was time to clean the gutters, carefully, so I don't fall off the ladder.  Then, I started getting things ready for launching my boat this morning at 10:00.  I had to get all the gear out of the attic, charge the battery, make sure I had everything I needed.  And I put the hitch on my Pilot, always a hassle because it gets rusty and I have to get out a file and work at it until the hitch fits.  I have used grease in the past, so I should pick some more up from my auto mechanic.  Meanwhile, Evie fired up the lawn mower and cut the lawn, despite the fact it had been cut a couple of days ago. I have to say it looks much better after mowing.  Finally, I dragged our kayaks from our parking area to the lake, washed them and got them ready for the summer.

Late Afternoon Sun

By the time I was done, I had worked up quite a sweat because of the 75% humidity and warm temperatures.  Evie, as well, had worked up a sweat so we both put on our bathing suits and jumped in the lake for the first time this year.  It was a bit cold to begin but began glorious, almost too warm for this time of the year.  After our swim, we got dressed and came back out to enjoy a beer on our dock, as the wind picked up and the air began to cool off.

Dusk

Around 6:15, we had another one of our favorite, go to dinners, broiled salmon with an orange marmalade sauce, garlic spinach, salad, rice and a glass of white wine.  After two days of travel and McDonald's, it felt like we were eating health food.  We watched two saved episodes of The Americans but still have one to go to catch up.  We then watched the first half of the Cavs game before I went upstairs to reading, having had enough of the game.  It lacked the great play and tension and intensity of the last to Golden State/OKC games.  The Cavs were kind of blah as was Golden State.  I assume that will change on Sunday.

It looks like two great days on the lake, the rains arriving on Sunday, we hope because we need it. Not as much as Texas is getting but a nice, steady, day of rain.  And it's now 8:00 and a heavy and cool fog has just arrived, obscuring Long Point.

A Happy Fiftieth Birthday To Our Daughter, Beth

Four Years Old, Honolulu, Hawaiii

Seven Years Old, Birthday Party, Istanbul, Turkey

Nine Years Old, Home On Sabbatical, Euclid, Ohio

Well, it's almost 7:00 and I have been up since 6:15.  Things don't change whether in Dallas, KC or home.  I am up early but this time, woke to rain and the sun barely peaking through the clouds, its reflection a narrow band on the lake.  Yes, we are back at the lake, after a three week sojourn out West.  We had a great  trip, wonderful visits with two of our kids and their families but, as always, it's good to be home, in our own bed, waking to the sun rising over Chautauqua Lake.  When we arrived last night, it was if it was a different home and yard.  When we left, it was still spring, little green, bushes just wisps of branches.  Now everything is green, filled in, the trees and bushes surrounding our house, lush and healthy.  We forgot how green our area becomes in summer.

6:13

Good Morning, Old Friend

6:45

Now to our trip yesterday.  I shudder to look back at it.  It all began well, with an unhealthy breakfast at our Hampton Inn in Goodletsville, just outside of Nashville.  We hopped in our car, ready for a ten hour plus drive to the lake.  We left at 8:00 so we expected to be home just after 6:00.  The road was busy out of the Nashville area but after that, we had little trouble even as we drove through Cincinnati on #71.  Once we got through Cincinnati, we thought we were home free.  Wrong.  About 20 miles out of the city, we hit something, a piece of iron sitting in the middle lane of the highway, blowing out our right front tire.  Luckily, we did not lose control of the car and were able to pull over to the narrow side.  After getting out and overcoming our shock, we started to think rationally and called AAA, got them on the phone, and they promised a truck and driver in an hour.

Thanks To Officer McGill

Changing The Tire With Help

Meanwhile, we were in the hot sun, in foot high grass, as cars and trucks roared by at 70 plus miles an hour.  We were aware of accidents happening to parked cars, so we got as far away from our car as possible.  As we waited, we searched the Internet for a Firestone dealer, called them but they did not have our tire despite the fact that our tires are Bridgestone or Firestone.  And because we have four wheel drive, we need the exact same tire.  We then searched for a Subaru dealer and, yes, there may be a God though he may be Zeus, a Greek.  There was a dealer eight miles away and they had the tire we needed.  Hallelujah.  After about forty minute, a police car stopped and the nice guy said he would be glad to help change the tire.  So we cleared out the mess of things in the back of our car, spreading them out on the grass, pulled out the mini spare, and proceeded to work up a sweat as we jacked up the car and started taking off the tire.  We were about half way through when AAA arrived and took over the task.

Thanks For The Help

Within 15 minutes, all was finished, the car was quickly repacked, the police officer heartily thanked and we were on our way to the Subaru dealer.  We pulled into the dealer, explained our predicament and the service person had our car quickly checked out.  The bad news is that one of the pipes that connect to the muffler was damaged; they did not have the part in stock but we could still drive the car although it would be noisy but not unbearable.  So they changed the tire and after about two hours, we were on our way, my wallet 200 bucks lighter.  By the way, this is the second flat we have had in the past two months.  At the beginning of April, we got a flat when we were visiting Folly Beach, South Carolina, having driven over a garden trowel.

So we were on our way to Columbus, around 3:00 and hit it just as rush hour was beginning, the result of our visit to the Subaru dealer.  So we slowly worked our way through Columbus rush hour traffic, the kind locals have to deal with everyday, so we did not feel so bad.  From then on, it was easy going, two stops at McDonald's for lunch around 4:00, then in Ohio for dinner around 8:00.  As we approached Chautauqua Lake, it began to cloud up and we even had a few drops of rain.  And as we drove into Woodlawn, the roads were wet from a brief thunderstorm.  We pulled into a house surrounded in the lush of late spring green.  We were home, thankfully, safe and sound after a 21 hour drive from Dallas.  We quickly unpacked; it was easy and quick, surprising both of us.  And we then spent the next hour putting everything in its place before sitting down and relaxing for a bit before wandering up to bed, the end of a long, traumatic day.

No more trips for us for the next four months.

Two Graduations, A Couple of Museums, Twenty One Days On The Road And Now 'Once More To The Lake'

We Could Be Any Where In The US 

It's now after 6:00 and I am sitting the breakfast room of the Hampton Inn, drinking my coffee, wondering if I should head back to the breakfast bar for a biscuit with sausage gravy.  None, alas, only omelets and sausage.  It looks like a sunny, warm day, a good day for a long, eleven hour drive back to Chautauqua Lake.

Leaving Dallas

Yesterday, the day after Memorial Day, we left Dallas early, getting up around 5:30 because we wanted to get a good start before traffic and, hopefully, getting to Nashville 10 hours later, before rush hour (almost made it except for that darn stalled truck in the middle of the road). We got out of Dallas easily and the road to Nashville was long and flat and boring until we got through central Tennessee when we began to see some rolling hills. During our our drive through Arkansas. we saw vast fields on either side of the road with puddles of standing water and green shoots, reminding us of rice fields in China.  I later found out that Arkansas leads the US in rice production so those were rice fields.  As one of the rice farmers said:

“I fell in love with it,” he says. “Growing rice came easily in Arkansas. The prairies are flat which makes it easy to flood, and water is plentiful. Rice requires water in the paddies, which is the land between the levies. There’s a natural topography to the land on the prairie that fits perfectly for rice.”

Crossing The Mississippi, Again, In Memphis

We hit Nashville around 4:45 and once we started on #65, we ground to a standstill as I mentioned earlier because of broken down truck.  Fortunately, we soon started moving, albeit slowly, and arrived at our dated Hampton Inn in the suburb of Goodlettsville, just about the time that my GPS suggested, 4:45,  10 1/2 hours door to door.  We checked into our Hampton and were exhausted after our drive, so we decided to fore go a restaurant and instead, just relaxed in our room and got a take out Thai dinner, a Panang Curry from a restaurant across the street.  It was exceptionally tasty, so it was a good choice.  We now know what it's like to watch regular TV with the commercials, or junk TV as I tend to call most of the major channels.  It was hard to avoid news about Trump or the Gorilla and the child on almost any of the news channels but we tried.  So we went back to the tried and true, Chopped.

We were both ready for bed by 9:30, 10:30 EST, so we decided to see if we could  get to sleep earlier than usual and get an early start although it's not a big deal when we get to the lake.  Just so it's before dark.