A Blanket of Clouds

6:06

7:02

Up at 6:20, to a darkness obscuring the beginning sunlight.  Off to the south, a patch of light,  but mostly darkness as clouds blanket the sky.  It's 46 degrees, a partly cloudy day to follow, a special day for Evie, as it's her birthday and for our son, Tom, as it's also his birthday.

Yesterday morning, we went to Jamestown, to escape from the insulating of our crawl space and because Evie had a dentist appointment.  We shopped some first, in Bemus, picked up a wedding present for friends in Ohio,  dropped my SUV off at Keystone in Lakewood before going to the dentist.  While Evie got her teeth cleaned, I went to the Labyrinth Press for lunch.  I had a great wrap, a Havana wrap of black beans, salsa, avocados, sunflower seeds, and sour cream, really tasty and healthy, sort of.  We got home around 2:00 as the guys were finishing up, measuring the amount of air that escaped from our house.  They had to get it below a certain point to sign off on the job.  So our house is tight, or tighter than it was, saving us money in the long run, I hope.  They seemed to be a pretty efficient group, knew what they were doing, and could do almost anything, whether plumbing, laying wood floors, or electrical.  Let's hope the investment was worth it.

Since it rained off and on most of the day (6/10 ths of an inch), we stayed inside, getting no exercise other than picking up the car later in the afternoon, making Turkish tea, and changing the channels on the TV.  A lost day, more of less, because of the appointment and the guys working on our house.  Dinner was a rotisserie chicken from Sam's. with baked potatoes and salad, an easy dinner.  We watched some Louie CK, not as good as we had hoped, read, and vegged out for most of the evening.  Although I like my book, RIVER OF SMOKE, I have not been in to reading much lately, so it's a struggle  to get through it.

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN

7:26

Algae bloom, one year ago

Detritus on Long Point, One Year Ago

Up around 6:30, surprisingly dark. as the clouds obscure any light off to the east.  It's now just gray, gray sky, gray lake, a gray day if we are looking ahead.  It's a pleasant sixty degrees outside, though it's not supposed to get much warmer, with a gentle rain.  A good day to stay inside, sip tea, and read if Evie did not have a dentist appointent in Jamestown, and the contractors were not putting foam insulation into our crawl space, a good time not to be home.

Yesterday was mostly a wasted day, as we had contractors around, working on our crawl space and attic, and a local handy man came over, a recommendation of our neighbors, a neat guy, who fixed a leaky sink trap and took measurements for a rain curtain on the south side of our front porch, something to protect us and our furniture from a rain storm.  We have been wanting one but were too lazy to call someone.  He seems a neat guy to know, can fix most things, used to build homes, than furniture for Stickley and other firms in Cassadaga until they sent their orders to China three years ago.  He had to close down his business, and 15 guys lost their jobs.  A typical story around the US.  Romney's going to fix it though, by coddling the 'makers',  the 1%, and ignoring the 'takers,' the 47%.  A bit of humor folks.

Evie did manage to get the lawn cut and I made three trips to the  quarry, to get more stones for our drive way and road, getting it ready for winter, alas.  Clyde was there, seemed to like seeing me after a couple of months, though I did wake him up, as he was sleeping in his car, waiting for business.  Pretty soon I will have our entire yard filled with stone and cairns, my new obsession I guess.

Around 5:30, we took a nice ride on the lake, lazily cruising both Whitney and Warner Bays, no traffic that we could see, the lake to ourselves, the way we like it.  We had Indian food for dinner, as good if not better than Saturday, and watched a Norwegian movie based on a Joe Nesbo thriller, which I had read, called HEADHUNTERS.  Not a  great movie but it kept our interest despite the fact that I had read the book and much of it was improbable.  But the story itself, though confusing at times, kept us going, wanting to find out how things would turn out.

Another Beautiful Morning But Rain Cometh

7:07

Wildflower, not sure of Name...Patsi?

Cool stem and Leaves

White wild flower

Tractor TD at Village Casino

Awoke at 7:00 to a clear sky, a vague rose, steam rising off the lake, the sun finally rising, an orange glow and it's a chilly 50 degrees. It looks as though we have a warm day, high around 75, clear but the rains come in tonight.  We had better take advantage of the day though we will be having workman here for the next three days, working on insulating our crawl space and attic.

Yesterday was a day of large leisure, as neither one of us felt too energetic, and relaxing on a chair at the end of the dock was as busy as we wanted to be.  We did, however, find enough mojo to walk the Rails to Trails path through the woods behind Webbs, heading east to Rt. 426.  It's a pleasant, shaded trail, one I have ridden on my bike as well.  We were out for an hour and a half, working up a bit of a sweat towards the end when it began to warm up.  A great morning for a walk.

The rest of the day we spent on the dock reading, or inside watching a few downs of football before getting bored and heading back outside.  I got the bright idea of taking our boat over to the Village Casino in Bemus for wings and a beer, so we cruised over along the shore, getting there around 6:30.  The outside deck was crowded with people, with nary a customer inside.  It was a fine night to sit out side, eat an unhealthy meal of wings and fries but what the heck, it's almost the end of summer and we had not been here since July with our kids.  We struck up a conversation with a nice couple from Angola, NY, who own a cabin in the woods just above Bemus in Ellery.  It's always nice to meet people who love the area as much as us, who cannot wait for Friday to come, so they can head to the lake, and take Mondays off so they can stay one extra day.  Nice people.

We got home around 8:00, watched some of the mornings news shows we had taped, a bit of football, then went to bed early for us, around 10:15.  I am into my book, the second of a planned trilogy by Amitrav Ghosh called SEA OF SMOKE.  It's set in the Far East in the mid 19th century.

Sunshine and Sunday and Cool

7:26

Maple Grove Warming Up

Ready, Set, Go

The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner

An Amazing and Delicious Apple Pecan Torte

The Kinneys, Debi and Bud

Up late for me, 7:45, the sun bright off to the east, difficult to see because of its brightness, as I get my coffee, turn on NPR and listen to a Terry Gross interview with a black comedian who I have never heard of but it's interesting enough that I  stop to listen.  He has a new TV series this fall.  His name, W. Kamau Bell.  It's sounds funny and political, lets hope it's not the typical stupid comedy show.  It would be nice to see a good black comedy, in the class with The Office, Seinfeld, Cheers, and MASH.

Yesterday was a busy day, mostly for Evie, as we were having our neighbors, Bud and Debi Kinney over for an Indian meal, which meant lots of preparation for Evie, cleaning up for me.  Fortunately, we were able to get a fun kayak ride in the morning, as we went to Long Point where the local high school, the Maple Grove Red Dragons were having a cross country invitational, with about twenty teams participating.  It had the atmosphere of a carnival, with tents, refreshments, and lots of pavilions for each team.  Adults, teams, parents, and kids were milling around, then would move off to various spots on the cross country course.  We stayed for the second race, the varsity girls.  The first race was open, for anyone who wanted to run, which was neat.  The day included anyone who wanted to run, from varsity to junior varsity to beginners.  It looked as though Maple Grove probably won the  girls team championship but a girl from Fredonia finished first, some 15 seconds ahead of the girl in second from Maple Grove.  You could not have asked for a nicer day for a meet like this.  It's so much fun to see all these young women participating in a sport, so  different from when I was growing up where the only sport girls had was cheering for guys at a game, or marching at half time as a Majorette.  They have come a long way, baby.

I did manage to get a bike ride in around Mayville and Sea Lion Drive, about an hour, while Evie was making up some of the Indian specialities.  The Kinney's came over around 6:30 and we sat outside on the front porch, though it was cool, enjoying the dusk sky. We had our appetizer, an Indian cauliflower soup on the porch, nice and warming as it was getting chilly.  For dinner we had one of our favorite dishes, Saag Paneer, spinach with squares of paner cheese, Raita, a cucumber and tomato dish, nice and refreshing, and Tandoori chicken thighs.  Rice and naan rounded the dinner off nicely.  Everyone enjoyed the meal, especially the spinach.

For dessert, Bud and Debi had made an apple pecan torte.  And because it was cool, we actually lit our fireplace, and had the delicious torte and Turkish tea in front of the fire.  We sat around and talked until almost 11:00, a fun evening with great food. Both Bud and Debi grew up and now live in the Cleveland area so we had a lot in common. And Bud had been coming to Woodlawn since he was a teenager so we learned lots about the good old days here at the lake.

TAKEN: ROBERT CRAIS

Absolute fluff but a fast easy read between more serious tombs, like SEA OF POPPIES  and the biography of John Smith, founder of Mormonism.  In this book, two teens end up getting caught in the cross fire between Hispanic and Korean gangs, and the outlaw, the Palestinian.  They unfortunately end up witnessing a group of illegals being brought into the States, only to be stolen from their mules by the Palestinian.  Because the two are witnesses, they are taken as well, to be ransomed in a safe house.  Elvis Cole gets a call from the frantic girl's parents, ends up following the trail, from the Hispanics, to the Koreans, to finally, the Palestinian.  He calls on his two friends, Joe Pike and Jon Stone , former mercenaries.  This time Elvis gets taken as well, and it's up to Joe Pike to get him out of a warehouse, guarded by eighteen men, obviously not too many for Joe.  Needless to say, it ends well.  And I have had enough of these two for a while.  It's ready to be made into a movie though they will have to change the name as there is already a Taken II out, with Liam Neilson.  We do get a taste, quite bad, of some of the illegalities that seem to be going on with human trafficking of mostly Asians and Hispanics here in the States.  It's not a pretty picture, brutal and greedy, and I hope the picture Crais paints is an exaggeration though I fear it's not.

Almost An Autumn Saturday

6:51

7:31

Yesterday afternoon, after the Rain

Little Valley Seniors Go Wild!

Up at 6:50 to the reoccurring sound of bass boats, roaring out of Long Point.  It's a scary cool 47 degrees, harbinger of months to come, and the mist on the lake has obscured the shoreline.  In fact, I can hear the bass boats but cannot see them the fog is so thick.  It looks to be a fine day, cool and sunny, highs in th3 60's, perfect for a walk or hike.

Yesterday, we decided to get a kayak paddle and walk in before we went to Lakewood to do our shopping for the week.  So we paddled over to the Pavilion at Long Point, the lake still green and algae ridden, pulled out boats up on shore, then walked up through the beach to the trails.  It was nice and cool in the woods, damp for some reason, and we walked for about an hour.  Just as we started, I saw a school bus pull in and I laughed, telling Evie its probably a bunch of kids and they will take our kayaks for a ride.  We both laughed at my joke.  Well, after our walk, we came to the beach and, alas, our kayaks were gone, a group of seniors from Little Valley High School were meandering on the beach.  We talked to some kids who were wading in the water and they admitted some of their friends had taken our kayaks out for a ride.  We finally saw them off to the south, yelled to come back and eventually they made it back.  A couple of the seniors came over, when they realized what had happened, and apologized for their classmates though two culprits were less than chastened, saying "We[ll pay your for using them,"  Ah youth!  We can understand the temptation but would have liked to see more of a sense of wrong doing.  And worst, I suppose, is that their teacher never came over to ask what was going on or apologize for the student's actions.  So, another adventure on the lake, not quite as exciting as the previous day's topless spotting.

I then met with the contractor who is going to tightened up our house, signed a contract, and they will be by next Monday to start the process.  I hope this is money well spent,  My brother in law, Jim Gill, is actually in this business, has looked over the recommendations, and told me I should go for it,  So I am.

We then went to Lakewood, to Sam's, to Wegman's, to Home Depot, dropping mega bucks, as groceries keep going up, especially veggies.  We hardly ever buy meat yet our bill is always over 100 bucks.  I cannot imagine what it's like for family of four or five, like our kids.

We had pizza and salad for dinner, and watched a new series for us, Season 1 of comedian Louie CK.  It's certainly X rated in language, certainly not PC but interesting, as his grossness often has a message worth thinking about.  He's not just vulgar and vapid.  It attempts to follow his day as a comedian, and we see his life, sometimes at home with his kids, in the comedy club, with friends, as well as his attempts to reconnect with the dating scene, as he's recently divorced.  We'll have to see if we continue to watch it.

Pink Sky in Morning, Sailor's Take Warning

6:40

7:11

Up at 6:25, to a pink sky, lots of clouds, a day that will bring rain, as the temperatures drop.  Right now it's 59, high of 72 but tomorrow's high will be in the mid 60's.  I guess this fickleness is fairly typical for the Chautauqua area, perhaps more so the last few years as global warning takes it toll.

Yesterday was a day to get things done in the morning and kick back in the afternoon.  It began with the resumption of the Thursday morning breakfast club, as five of us gather at the Bemus Inn to kibitz, solve the world's problems, and talk about local gossip and politics.  All of them used to work at the CI as vice presidents, so they know the area, what's going on in the CI and Jamestown and surrounding communities quite well.  We are much a like, at least in our breakfast orders, as three of us had poached eggs on hash, not your most healthy breakfast.  Anyways, the rest of the morning Evie and I spent outside, beginning our clean up for the winter.  We worked on the hedges, Evie cut the lawn, and I finally took down the purple martin house.  We also started gathering together summer toys and accoutrement's and putting them up in the garage attic.  I even took down the snow shovels before I put up the summer floats!

I have also made the decision to invest in a home improvement package.  Through the NYState, I was able to get a free home improvement assessment.  They evaluate how tight, how energy efficient your house is and then put together a package of suggested improvements, things that could be done to save money, to invest in the health and longevity of your house.  Most of my work will be done in the crawl space, spraying two inch foam insulation around the perimeter, air sealing, and adding a vapor barrier to the crawl space.  I like the guy, a local, who put together the package.  Because it's through NY State, there are lots of hoops to jump through.  And because I am so wealthy, I don't get any rebates, alas!  It will be interesting to see if it makes much difference.  I am most worried about dampness in the crawl space and the possibility of mold and this should take care of it.

The big event of the day took place around 5:00.  Evie wanted to kayak before we went out for dinner, so we jumped in our boats and paddled fortuitously across to Long Point.  As we paddled around the tip, two people had dragged a canoe out to the point and were putting it in the water.  We said hello to them, not noticing at first, that the second of the two canoeists, was TOPLESS.  At first, from a distance I thought she was boy with her shirt off.  As I got closer, I did a double take and realized it was a woman, perhaps in her early 20's.  I resisted the urge to linger and talk, paddled on by, resisted the temptation to turn around and see where they were paddling, a good boy like my mom  always said.  We paddled around the bay and never saw them again though Evie said they paddled towards Tom's Point. Needless to say, I will be kayaking the next few afternoons around 5:00, just to make sure there are no more disturbing, disreputable, salacious events on the lake...the morality patrol.

For dinner, we went to Andriaccio's, the Italian restaurant across from the CI, with our neighbors the Leonard's and Pat Jones.  As usual, it was busy and we had a pretty good pizza, the Neapolitan and because we got the large, we ended up taking half of it home, tonight's dinner no doubt.  It was a nice way to spent am evening, with our neighbors, and we got home around 8:00, just in time to watch the politicizing of the events in the Middle East.  Every Republican pundit took this opportunity to say it was all Obama's fault, a result of his weakness and pandering to the ME.  And the Democrats all argue that his policies are working, that he's resolute, look at the death of Osama, the pull out of Iraq, etc.  Few know what they are talking about and if they switched parties, they would be saying just the opposite.  No matter what Obama does, the Democrats support it, the Republicans criticize it, whether it's right or wrong.  Just politics, I guess.