Another Splendid Morning

6:36

7:09

7:18

8:47

It' 8:50 and I was out for an hour paddling over to the Long Point Bathhouse because I heard the call of a loon in that direction.  Unforunately, I saw none and went back across the lake to Wells Bay and home.  I assume the great blue herons have migrated, alas, but I did see a raft of hooded mergansers. It was a busy lake, with lots of fishing boats because the weather has been so delightful. 

Kayaking Towards Long Point

Northern Sky

Victoria/Woodlawn

Hooded Mergansers

Home

Yesterday was a great day for me, with lots of outdoor activities but not so for Evie who had a bad night, no doubt, stressing about the election.  We cannot wait till it's over so we can relax until Trump marshalls his forces and starts a war of sorts, hopefully, just in the courts, not on the streets. I paddled early, wrote the blog, had breakfast, and then went for an excellent bike ride. I parked just beyond the bridge and took my usual ride, along Lakeside Drive, through Long Point State Park and home. I was gone for just over an hour on a  sunny and warm day.  I ran into the guys who were parked along with Victoria in their duck blind.  Their pontoon boat is quite a set up, camouflaged with pine boughs, a gas stove, and a coffee pot in the interior. They recognized me and laughed that I hardly recognized them last week.  

Biking Long Point

Long Point

Two Trails

Bringing In The Duck Blind

Local Humor?

I was home by noon and Evie warmed up the rice, tomato sauce, and meatballs for my lunch.  I am nearing the end of my series and am ready to start something new.  I read and napped, as usual, waking to more election news, as the ballots seem to have stalled in a couple of States.  I can listen to the pundits for about ten minutes, then have to go on to something else.  Around 3:30, we both went out and worked in the yard for an hour, pulling out all of Evie's dahlias, no longer blooming, filling up another pail.  We also cut back all of the perennials and did some raking of the beds so that I took another two pails up the hill to the woodpile.

Fishing Off Of Long Point

We relaxed with a glass of wine, listening, with laughter, to Fox News 'makeup' the fraud with no evidence, just the loudmouth of the Whiner in Chief.  Around 6:30, Evie made a salad, topped with salmon, baked a cheesy cauliflower, and heated up some Naan and we had dinner, just what I wanted.  It's fast becoming my favorite way of enjoying salmon.  We watched another Colbert, and he was close to tears when responding to Trump's poisonous comments challenging the validity of the elections. I felt the same way, thinking it was not only outrageous but treasonous.  We then watched a new episode of The Great English Baking Show, then two more episodes of Teheran, bored with episode three, more excited about episode four.  And so it goes.

Indian Summer Days

6:24

7:09

7:28

8:18

It's 8:25,  and I just returned from a forty-five-minute paddle on an absolutely perfect morning, the sky cloudless, the lake smooth like a mirror. I had to cut it short because of a duck blind set along the shoreline just north of Sandy Bottom. The quiet of the morning was interrupted by their gunshots and an annoying leaf blower on the other side of the lake. Still, I was happy to paddle to Long Point and back across the lake.  

Kayak Morning

Victoria/Woodlawn

The Sun, The Sun

We had a surprisingly good day despite the uncertainty of the elections. Mentally, it was a day of working on patience, dealing with uncertainty, two qualities I lack.  I needed a good paddle to take my mind off of the election and listening to music, not the news.  After breakfast, I figured keeping busy was a good antidote so I cleared the leaves out from behind our garage.  They always collect there, often leading to water on the garage floor so it needs to be done each fall.  I filled two 32 quart pails with the leaves and took them up the hill. 

Lakeview Cemetery

Military Memorial

"Bare ruined choirs/where late the sweet birds sang"

A Sense Of Humor?

Earlier, we had decided to walk the Lakeview Cemetery in Jamestown something we like to do a couple times a year because it's so beautiful and interesting. We walked for forty-five minutes, meeting a couple of joggers.  Although most of the leaves had fallen, the sugar maples were still at their peak color.  The leaves were an inch or two deep in many areas and we could hear three leaf blowers going at the east end near the Buffalo Street entrance. On the way home, we made two stops, at Brigiotti's to pick up feta cheese and some vegetables. We then stopped in Aldi's briefly hoping to pick up a couple of racks of lamb but they were sold out.

We were home late, at 1:00 and I had ham sandwiches and vegetable soup for lunch and watched my show, a respite from the news.  I read some of my new book, Fredrik Backman's new novel, Anxious People.  After a brief nap, I caught up on the news then wanted to get outside, so I ended up mulching the leaves once again and doing some more raking.  Evie joined me with the mulching and raking and I ended up taking two more barrels of leaves up the hill.

We then relaxed, still surprised by how early it gets dark, with the sun setting around 5:00.  About 6:00, Evie got dinner ready, salmon with garlic spinach and rice with a small salad.  We watched various news programs, then Trump came on, whining about the fraudulent election with absolutely no evidence, just lies.  It was repulsive and disgusting to listen to the President malign, even poison our democratic process.  Some Republicans were even critical but not Trump's shills, Hannity and Ingraham.  We ended the night with an episode of Teheran, a new thriller from Apple TV. 

 

Want To Make God Laugh? Make A Plan!

6:37

7:04

It's a beautiful morning here at the lake, the sky partly cloudy, parts filled with light.  We are experiencing an Indian Summer, quite a contrast to the snow this past week.  Temperatures are in the high 60's for the next week, perfect for hiking and working in the yard. I just turned off Morning Joe, the election of President still up in the air with Trump's lawyers contesting the results wherever he seems to have lost or is in the process of losing.  In Phoenix, at least 150 Trump supporters, some armed, protested the count in Maricopa County.  It's 9:10 and I have been out kayaking for over an hour, a perfect lake morning, lots of sunshine, calm waters, and just moi.

Kayak Morning

Paddling Towards The Sun

Paddling Towards Stow

Yesterday was not a good day, mostly because neither of us slept well Tuesday night because of the election.  I was up at 5:00, waiting for everyone else to rise.  We sat around Linda and Ron's, somewhat optimistic as things had changed overnight and Biden had a chance to win.  Ron and I drove off to the Lighthouse Grocery at 10:00 and picked up breakfast sandwiches, eggs, cheese and Canadian bacon, the best.  We left after breakfast, around 11:00 and even though I was tired, once we settled down in the house, I went out and raked more twigs and leaves and Evie soon joined me, both of us raking to avoid our nervousness.  

Hooded Megansers And Coots

Lunch was soup, healthy and tasty and I watched my show, waiting to get both over with so I could go upstairs and nap, hoping to catch up on my sleep.  I slept for less than an hour, woke tired and cranky, wishing I could have slelp more.  I then watched some of the news but nothing had changed, as vote counting seemed to have stopped in Arizona and Nevada, the two crucial states for Biden.  I soon was bored and went back out in the yard, raked more, and took barrels of twigs and leaves up the hill.  It felt good to be doing something and it's always nice to have the leaves raked and gone,

Beers Outdoors With The Guys

Around 4:00, I left for beers with the guys.  We sat outside on Tom's patio, safely distanced, the temperature comfortable, and went through the angst we all felt the previous 24 hours and wondering why anyone would vote for Trump.  I guess half of the country feels that way.  Anyways, it was fun to get together and we left only when the moon and stars came out, around 6:00.  

We had an easy dinner as neither of us was that hungry.  Evie made ham and cheese sandwiches, warmed up the vegetable soup and that was dinner.  We watched the Colbert special from Tuesday night on Showtime, The Great English Baking Show, and some of the news coverage and had enough around 9:00 and went up to bed early, tired from our day.  

The Sun Also Rises

Morning At Lighthouse Point

I started writing  my blog at 5:00 discouraged by Trump's lead but now it's  9:30, all four of us are up and Michigan just turned blue giving Biden more of a chance to win. Hallelujah.  There's hope. 

It took a lot out of me to get up this morning at 5:00 but once awake, I knew I could not get back to sleep after last night's discouraging election results. I obviously did not see America clearly and thought Biden would win in a landslide.  Wishful thinking I guess with my hopes for a sane, empathetic, and honest President.  Most of my friends feel the way I do and we are clearly out of step with a good half of Americans. So be it. 

The Cat Whisperer

Clay And A Bouquet

I felt sorry for myself back in the early 2000s for having to live through eight years of Dubya.  Now those years look like Utopia after four years of Trump and most likely, four more.  His winning won't affect me much, just my grandchildren, their hopes for the future.  Finally, Trump speaks to an America I don't understand, one that I have to respect and get to know.  I don't think I have been living in a bubble of like-minded souls but I guess I have. 

Optimistic Pessimists

As I finish this, it's just about 7:00 and everyone is still asleep except me, having been up now for two hours.  Looking at the papers, Biden still has a slight chance of winning but I think that's just more wishful thinking by the lying media, the fake New York Times, and Washington Post. As I think about a Trump win, the worst part will be his dominating the airways and papers for four more years. Somehow I will have to learn to just turn him off, shut him out, let him babble without listening, a survivual strategy. 

We spent yesterday getting ready for what we thought was going to be an exciting evening. We were spending the evening and night at our friends, Linda and Ron's house. Our morning was the usual, kayaking, the blog, breakfast but I had a car appontment at Finn's at 9:00, so I left for Niobe at 8:30, to get an oil change, tire rotation, and NY State Inspection.  I dropped the car off and went for a forty five minute walk as I usually do at Finn's and when I finished, my car was ready and I was home by 11:00.  For some reason, we wanted to leave the house in good shape, so Evie spent a good part of daily cleaning and vacuuming and I worked outside in the yard, raking up two barrels of deadfall, most of it from our willow.  Early afternoon, the sun came out after a gray morning, making it pleasant to be outside.

Amish Log Pulling

Lunch was the leftover pork and sauerkraut and I watched another episode of Babylon Berlin. I spent the afternoon reading, working in the yard as I mentioned, oblivious to the pending apocalypse yet to come that evening.  We left for Linda and Ron's at 5;00, full of optimism and hope.  We immediately started watching the beginning of the election results and slowly, as the evening waned, we became less and less optimistic and by 8:00, it became clear that there would be few if any upsets for Biden, with Trump winning in Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia, three states the pundits thought Biden could win.  Our evening was, however, made palatable by great food, a crab, shrimp, and fish chowder from Linda, chicken wings from Evie, lots of snacks to keep us from going crazy and alcohol of course. Somehow we stayed up until midnight, as the votes for Trump in the Rust Belt surprised all but Tucker Carlson and Fox News who predicted the polls showing Biden leading comfortably were nothing but fake news.  I wonder if I should join the hordes and become a Fox News viewer during the next four years? 

Tuesday Afternoon At The Lake 

 

Apocalypse Now?

6:18

7:06

7:08

8:04

I am going to predict a Biden landslide after watching the wonderful documentary about the Obama years, "The Way I See It," featuring the photographs and narration of White House photographer Peter Souza.  I have faith that the American people,  having elected the first black President twice, are too smart and good to be fooled twice by Trumpism and its conspiracy theories, undermining truth and our democracy.

I woke early, at 6:15, to a majestic dark cloud hovering over the lake, a slash of yellow just below. The ground is still snow-covered but as the temperature starts to rise from this mornings 37º, it will melt. I am taking my car into my Subaru guy Finn at 9:00, for an oil change, tire rotation, and brake cleaning if needed but was able to get in a forty minute paddle, down to Sandy Bottom, on a calm lake.

Kayak Morning

Yesterday went quickly, as we stayed inside much of the day because of the first snow of fall.  I did try to paddle but was chased in by the choppy waves after 15 minutes.  Evie slept in some but was up when I returned from a short paddle.  We finished the blog and then got busy getting a few things done in the house because we decided to brave the cold and snow and walk the woods of Long Point State Park.  We did not get off until 11:00 and because of the wind, we stayed in the woods not venturing out to the tip of Long Point.  It was a good choice although it cut our walk short.  We were out for maybe forty-five minutes, just enough to feel good about ourselves.

Snow Covered Trails Of Long Point

When we returned home,  I heated up the leftover pork and sauerkraut for lunch and watched my show, Babylon Berlin.  I have four more episodes before finishing the series.  Neither one of us felt like doing much the rest of the day.  I read and napped, and Evie played Words With Friends and watched or listened to the news.  We decided on spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, so Evie pulled some meatballs out of the freezer, added a jar of pasta sauce and we had dinner.  We enjoyed a glass of wine before dinner, listening to the repetitive but always breaking news.

Because my sister Ellen highly recommended the Obama documentary "The Way I See It", we watched it while eating our spaghetti dinner.  Both were great, especially the documentary which made you long for decency, honor and integrity in the White Office, not a twittering demagogue. We didn't watch much but the news channels the rest of the night, too nervous to watch a series. 

One More Day

Snowy, Snowy Night

6:33

I knew I would be waking to the first white morning of fall because the snow started last night around 5:30. We received maybe an inch, enough to cover the ground.  Wind gusts were strong enough to shake the house during the night.  Right now, it's 30º, with a 17 mph wind from the northwest, creating a choppy, wavy lake.  I made the mistake of trying to go kayaking and lasted hardly 15 minutes before heading home because of the white caps and cold.  

Kayaking Among The Waves

Northeastern Sky

Yesterday was a whirlwind for Evie, a day of leisure for me.  Weather-wise, it was a strange day, as the sky would suddenly turn gray, cloud over, rain, then open up, allow some sun, then just as suddenly, it would turn gray and start sleeting.  We never knew what to expect so we never did get outside for a Sunday walk at the CI.  I did get in kayaking before the bad weather and enjoyed breakfast before Evie got up.  After the blog, she put together a shopping list, basically for our Tuesday evening food and drink extravaganza at Linda and Ron's where we will be having a sleepover. I left for Wegman's around 10:30 and was surprised at how crowded it was on a Sunday morning, with lines at every checkout. I picked the line where the customer in front of me used a check to pay, always fun to watch.  

When I returned home, the kitchen was in chaos as Evie was not only making one thing but three, vegetable soup, an apple pie, and our dinner, pork and sauerkraut with time out when the groceries were put away to make breakfast, bagels, fried eggs, and sausage links.  It was good to get back to our Sunday morning routine of breakfast and CBS Sunday Morning.  Once breakfast was done, I worked at getting the kitchen cleaned up and Evie returned to her stove.  Once I was done, I read, fell asleep, and was awakened a half-hour later by a crash of thunder and rain or sleet pelting the house. I decided to watch some football and clean up the rest of the kitchen because Evie was through with her kitchen time.  

5:21 PM

We decided that if it snowed, we would celebrate with a Manhattans, and by 5:50, I was making them and Evie was making popcorn.  It felt like a night in the middle of January, with the wind howling, thick snowflakes falling in our yard, highlighted by our spotlight. We loved it and Evie took mucho photos of the snow falling.  

A Blur Of Snow At 5:35

Around 7:00, we settled down to our dinner, another favorite, pork ribs with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  We were both hungry and devoured our dinner.  We watched the pundits discuss the polls for the hundredth time before turning to SNL, a home improvement show, and 60 Minutes,  

Two More Days

Last Night's Blue Moon Over Long Point

6:41

Joyce's Last Dahlia

Well, it's only 8:13, really 9:13 yesterday. I woke to a  gray sky, a brisk wind, then some brief sun before it clouded up and started to drizzle as I paddled down to Sandy Bottom and back. I could tell when the southerly wind would pick up as the lake's surface would feather and I would make sure to hold on to my paddle more securely.  Despite the fact that I saw no wildlife, it was a good way to start a Sunday morning.  

 

Southeastern Sky

For some reason, Saturday was a busy day for me, a day off for Evie. I got in my early paddle as usual, had breakfast, wrote the blog, and then both Evie and I gathered the trash from the past two weeks, enough to fill up my Outback.  I drove to a busy Transfer Station and got some help unloading my car's trash. It always feels good to drop it off.  When I returned, I got busy with a few fall chores, the first, cleaning the leaves out of the gutters, carefully I might add.  I then worked on putting away all of our pots and chairs in the garage, chopped down dead plants, starting the cleaning up of the garden, filling the compost pile with the detritus.  I also filled a couple of garbage pails with stalks and took them up the hill, finishing my chores by 12:30.  Evie had put together Cincinnati chili for lunch, grabbing a frozen quart of chili from the freezer, warming it up, and boiling noodles. A nice hardy lunch for a busy boy.

Saturday Afternoon Blue Skies

That was it for the day, really, as I spent the rest of the day reading, taking a nap, listening to some news, then, about 4:30, the sun came out so I went for a short walk around Victoria, running into our neighbor's John and Maryanne, excited because their son Steve's wife had just given birth to their second grandchild, a girl.  We then relaxed with a glass of wine as the sun lit up the eastern horizon, the colors muted as the leaves begin to turn brown.  Dinner was heating up the Santa Fe chicken, making some rice, and ending it with a yogurt and berry parfait.  We watched Colbert, then Real Time With Bill Maher, and some HGTV shows before bed.  

6:42 PM