And The Gang's 'Almost' All Here

The Albarrans Arrive

Tom and Mary

Beth and Ramiro

6:30

Overcast and misty at the moment, a sticky 66º, the lake and sky gray, as I sit here alone at 7:00, having been up for a half an hour.  We had some rain last night, not sure how much, and more is predicted for later today.  We hope to hike the Chautauqua Gorge this morning before the rain but the weather reports are so contradictory that it's hard to tell what to expect weather wise.  Just do it and if it rains, pack it up.

Lunch on the boat with Marlena, Nick, and Mary

Photo Frenzy

Our Lovely Eleven Year Old Granddaughter, Marlena

Yesterday, like the next two weeks, will border on organized chaos.  We started the day with a house of six, ended it with twelve, will increase to sixteen later in the week for a couple of days, a typical day with family in the summer.  Kids slept in till 9:00, as the adults sat around enjoying their coffee, catching up on the news and emails on their iPhones and iPads.  Around 10:00, we decided to take the kids tubing since it was a sunny morning, perfect for the lake.  Our new tube, unfortunately, did not measure up to its hype so we are taking it back.  Either the boat is not powerful enough, or the tube just drags, so that the kids don't get much of a ride.  When we came in from tubing, Evie went swimming with the kids, and I spent the next two hours blowing up all our other tubes, finding out many had leaks, fixing those, blowing them up again, and finally, by 2:00, I had four floating in the lake, ready for the kids to play a version of Wipe Out.  In between my tube work, we decided to go for a lunch cruise since the lake was so calm.  Evie had made a tuna salad, so she brought that along, with sandwiches for Nick and Marlena, chips, and drinks and we had a pleasant lunch on the busy lake, perhaps as busy as I have seen it this summer, with masses of boats anchored together, both at Sandy Bottom and the Long Point Cove.  Yes, summer vacation time is really here.

Marisa and Marlena

The rest of the afternoon, till 4:30, was spent on the dock, napping, and waiting for the Albarrans to arrive, late because of an hour detour  delay around Salamanca, so be forewarned if you head East.  We were all excited to see them and Marisa literally bounced out of the car to hug Evie and me...nothing like granddaughters for hugs and affection.  The boys, too, but more restrained.  And there was added excitement (curiosity) because Tyler brought along his girl friend from Dartmouth, Helen.  We were all anxious to meet her, poor  girl, having to put up with all of us for the next five days.  She runs both cross country at track at college, so within an hour, she was off on a eight mile run.  At least someone this week will show some discipline!  It was great to see everyone, and the Albararns looks great and as always, are excited to be here.  Within a half hour Marisa, Marlena and Evie were in the lake, as the parents all sat on the porch, catching up on their lives since Tom and Mary had not seen Beth and Rami since last summer, the problem with living in Kansas City.

Devouring Brisket and Stuffed Shells 

Late afternoon and early evening were spent drinking beer, sipping wine, for the adults, swimming and jumping on the tube for the kids.  Evie had dinner made so all it took was popping the stuffed shells and brisket with gravy in the oven, a great idea for the first night. It was nice enough to eat outside, so the kids had a table, the adults one.  Dinner was great, most of the shells and brisket were gone, and Beth's salad, and Evie's dressing were the hit.  After dinner, we all played Spud, a tradition the last few years. though we did miss our daughter Jill because the kids love calling her number!  We played until it got dark, then we sat inside, talking, surfing the Net, taking pictures and the kids, and Helen, too, all got to pick out a gift from the treasure chest, another Davis tradition.  The old folks and girls went to bed around 11:00, while the boys, Mitch and Nick, and Tyler and Helen, stayed up and played a card game called Telefunky, taught to them by my mother.  It was a good way to end a great day.

It's now 9:00, only five of us are up.  And I just got back from the Lighthouse Grocery, where I picked up a pound and a half of our daughter Beth's favorite, pea meal bacon, and five pounds of ground chuck for later in the day, when we make Iskender Kebabs.  Yummy.

Marlena

Marisa

Mitch

Nick

Mitch

Nick

The Real Summer Begins, As Our Kids Start Arriving

Marlena, Nick, Mary and Tom, Here At Last

6:21

Dusk, at 9:31

Up at 6:20, to a quiet house, a mostly cloudy sky, 55º outside, a sunny afternoon forecast before the rains come tonight and tomorrow.  We are hoping for some good weather today.  Tom and his family arrived last night about 8:00 after a long day of flights from Kansas City, and a drive from Cleveland's airport.  And today, Beth and her family will drive to the lake from CT, arriving sometime this afternoon.

Yesterday was another full day, perhaps more so because we knew Tom' family was arriving.  We did another big shopping excursion at Wegman's and I picked up some things at Home Depot, so when we got home, our freezers, and two refrigerators were full, the cooler on the porch ready to be filled with pop/soda and beer.  I gassed up the boat, Evie cut the lawn, and about 5:00, Evie relaxed as everything was done, the house was ready for our kids, and she could kick back and wait for their arrival.

Marlena Arrives

Marlena, of course, was the first out of the car to give Evie a hug, followed by Nick, Tom and Mary. All were excited to get here, to end their long day of travel.  Everyone looks healthy and happy, ready for a week of fun.

Loving Granny's Photo Album, Summer, 2013

The first thing they wanted  to do was see the Family Album Evie put together on Shutterfly.  So they all sat on the front porch, on the couch, and slowly went through the album, loving the pictures of themselves and their cousins and siblings from last summer.  I have to admit Evie did a masterful job of capturing a week or two of our family gathering.  Everyone was featured, each grandchild had their own page, and no one felt left out.  Anyways, they all loved it, wanted a copy, of course. Because we were not sure when they would arrive, we had a light dinner, of Slovenian sausages, hot dogs, cole slaw and a choice of three kinds of homemade soup.   I would say Evie had things ready!  The Slovenian sausages are the best, from Asman's Meats, in Euclid, Ohio.

Two Crazy Girls

After dinner,  Marlena wanted to go jump in the lake, despite the time, the darkness, the coolness of the evening.  Always game, Evie put on her suit, and along with Nick, all three went for a swim at dusk, the water seemingly warmer than the air.  Nick got out quickly but Evie and Marlena played around  before getting out.  It was a lovely night, the western sky just losing its color.  We went in to relax in the living room, to talk and what else, hit our iPhones, iPads, or computers, conversing in between searches.

We threatened the kids with a moratorium on electronic devices during the day but I doubt it the adults would put up with it, so why force it on the kids.  And its never been a problem as they spend most of their time outside, coming in only to kick back a bit, which is fine.

We were all tired, the kids from the trip, Evie and I from our preps, so we were in bed by 10:30, sleepy but ready for a great week.  And we cannot wait to see Beth and family today, Jill and family on Thursday.

A Chilly, Forty Eight Degree Morning

6:47

6:50

I slept in some, till 6:45 or there about, which felt good...no waking around 5:00.  It's chilly outside, not a surprise as the papers have been talking about 'fall in July' for much of the eastern part of the United States.  We both love this kind of coolness, if it does not come accompanied by rain but our kids start arriving today, so we are not too happy about the cool weather, especially the forecast for some rain.  It does seem that every time our son Tom and family visit, the weather cools and we all get out our fleeces.  I remember our first summers here at the lake, in the 1980's, usually in August, when a typical day was in the 60's or 70's, never hot like the past five or ten years.  I am not saying it's global warming because I wouldn't want to disagree with the marvelous trifecta from two years ago of Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, and Rick Perry, the cream of conservative politics.

We got lots done yesterday, never stopped really until around 5:00 in the afternoon, getting things ready for this evening, when our son Tom and family arrive and tomorrow, when Beth arrives with her family and the fun begins.  It took Evie most of the morning to get our room ready for the girls, all four of whom sleep on the floor in our bedroom.  It takes moving our clothes out of our dressers, for the girls to use, then dragging in mattresses and blowing up air mattresses, then arranging pillows around the wall, leveling out the huge bed, then finding away to put on sheets, then covers and quilts . Before that, we moved all the furniture off to the side, vacuumed, and by early afternoon, our room was ready for our granddaughters.  Needless to say, they love the huge mattress for four, spend a large part of the day on it.  It sounds easy but it's not.  While Evie worked on our bedroom, I spent a good hour and a half on our brick walk way, edging and weeding, a thankless task but it looks much better once done. I helped some upstairs, vacuumed the bedrooms, moved all my clothes into the attic, so now the upstairs is ready except for the air conditioners, which we will put in today.

Food wise, I sliced up the brisket, and Evie made a gravy to put over it, and we packed it up and froze it for Saturday night.  Evie also made another soup, mushroom barley, another one of our favorites, and I snuck some for my lunch.  We also bought a new tube for the kids, and I got out the air compressor and blew it up.  It's supposed to handle four but from the looks of it, two sounds about right.  Let's hope it lasts a couple of summers.  I went to Mayville mid afternoon, picked up a chicken from the Lighthouse for dinner.

Around 5:30, we relaxed on the dock with a beer, Evie intending to take a swim.  But after a half hour, it was so cool and breezy that we decided to go in and finish our beer on the porch.  We got out the Utz pretzels, some thing we both have started to really enjoy with a beer.  Our dinner was easy, baked potatoes, chicken and a salad.  We watched Stewart and Colbert, what else, and Evie cut up some peaches for dessert.  I couldn't wait to go upstairs to read as I am enjoying my new book, Fourth of July Creek, even though it's depressing so far, as Pete, the main character and a social worker, visits unbelievably sad, poor, often violent and dysfunctional families, all living in the mountains of Montana. My hope is that 'alls well that ends well.'

As I write this, Evie's already busy, making hard boiled eggs, boiling noodles for a tuna macaroni salad, perfect for lunches, corn chowder, homemade blue cheese dip and snickerdoodles, the boys favorite cookies.   We are going to make one last trip to Wegman's and Sam's later today, to pick up whatever we have forgotten from our other trips.  Probably the last thing that needs to done is cutting the lawn and, of course, Evie will take care of that.

MIDNIGHT IN EUROPE: ALAN FURST

It's  December, 1937, and Christian Ferrar, a Spanish emigre is living in Paris, a partner in a French law firm, Coudert Freres.  He's travels all over Europe, even to the New York City, for his firm.  The story begins and ends in New York with a writer named Eileen Moore.  This is not, however, anything more than a homage to romance, as the story is really about the obligation that Ferrar's has toward the Republican government in Spain, the loyalists, who are fighting Franco and his  fascists.  Ferrar gets recruited  by the Spanish embassy in Paris and along with arms dealer Max de Lyon, he tries to get armaments through the various blockages and restrictions, to the besieged government in Madrid.  At first, it's guns from a arms maker in Czechoslovakia, then later, towards the end of the book, it's ammunition for anti aircraft guns from Odessa, needed to shoot down the Germany Messerschmidt's from Hitler's Germany.  I read Furst's books for the atmosphere, the late 1930's in Europe, the intrigue, as people try to figure out what's really going on in Germany, as Hitler continues to build up his army and armaments. The sadness of the end is inevitable, as all the scheming, the risks taken, the deaths incurred, are all for naught as Franco ends up ruling Spain.  And in this book, Furst seems to have given in to modernity, as there's a heavy romance as well, between Ferrar Moore in the beginning , then with a Spanish royalty, who turns out to be a spy for Franco albeit forced into it with threats to her family. I don't much remember these trysts from his other books.  Still, I liked it enough to recommend. Not his best but worth reading.

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS: OLEN STEINHAUER

This is the story of Emil Brod, a young, green policemen, recently transferred to Homicide.  The novel is set just as WW II has ended, in an unnamed eastern block country, recently taken over by the Russian communist party, who have installed their puppet to control the masses.  It's most likely Hungary or  thereabouts.  Emil survived the war by fleeing to Helsinki and working on various fishing boats, just about as dangerous as being in the war.  He's an eager detective, but receives the cold shoulder from his peers because they think, at first, he's a Russian plant.  He forces the chief to give him a case, the brutal murder of a famous composer, and of course it turns out to be more involved then anyone thought, mostly because Emil digs up some dirt on a couple of politico higher ups,  creating problems for the department as well as Emil.  But like a dog with a bone, Emil will not give up, despite being shot three times, beaten up, and not taken seriously by his mates until he finds himself in a hospital with gun shot wounds.

After getting out of the hospital, he flies to Berlin, to pursue the leads, and we get a sense as to what it's like to be in a divided Berlin, move from the Soviet to the free American zone.  There he's able to  go through some old Nazi records, proving that the killer of the composer, one of the higher ups, colluded both with the Nazis and Russians, participating in mass murders.  Of course, Emil gets beaten up, again, by the Russians when he returns to their zone but they let him go, but it's not clear why.  Perhaps he was not responsible for any problems in their zone.

He returns, sets up an exchange with the powerful politico, trades the photographs of his Nazi connections, for Lena, the wife of the composer but now his lover.  It does not work out as planned, of course,  but he does get Lena back.  He knows that he's not safe, that the politico will eventually come after him, so he's made copies of the incriminating photograph.  Before he can do anything, word comes that the politico has been brutally murdered in his home, and its not clear by whom.  Thus ends Emil's first case, his pursuit of a corrupt politician, and now he's part of the homicide group, a veteran so to speak, even admired for his persistence.  Not a great read, not as good as Steinhauer's later books but for a first novel, I like the way he's able to create an atmosphere, in this case, eastern bloc countries in 1948.

Too Early Of A Morning

5:43

6:17

Awake around 5:15, up at 5:35, to an picturesque sky of clouds, light peaking through the cracks, and a chilly though comfortable 57º.  I actually heard a boat out on the lake at that hour and there's a fishing boat off of Victoria as I write at 6:30.  It looks like a good day, weather wise, despite this mornings cloud cover, a high of 73º.

Yesterday was another busy day, mostly for Evie, as she was up early, getting busy, while I went to yoga in Westfield with my neighbor, Kathy Leonard.  It was a rainy ride to Westfield, then to Hardscrabble Road.  There were about 12 of us in the studio in the woods, an ideal location for a yoga studio.  Class was, as always, humbling and informative, as Dariel is a stickler for doing things right.  It rained hard during class, peppering the skylights, and quite humid in class, despite the fans.  But it was a good class, close to two hours long, and Kathy really enjoyed it.  On the way home, we stopped at the Lighthouse, to pick up a mega brisket for Saturday night, a sub for lunch.  When I got home, Evie has already made two soups, her famous vegetable, and a mushroom barley, both favorites of our kids and grandchildren.

We watched some Stewart while eating our subs, then Evie got busy again, getting the brisket ready for a four hour slow cooking in the oven.  I relaxed some, read, then Evie decided to take off with our neighbor's grandkids, to the Dollar Store, to pick out items for our depleted treasure chest.  They had a grand time picking out 'treasures' that they thought our grandchildren and others might enjoy and, of course, Evie let them buy a few things for themselves, the best part of the trip.  She also picked up my boat cover, more expensive then I thought, of course, and came home in the rain.

A Couple of Cuties

The Grilling Birthday Boy and Friend

Around 5:30, we both took showers because we were going over to the Mc Clures to celebrate Ron's SIXTY EIGHTH BIRTHDAY.  By the time we got there, it had cleared up and cooled off, so we needed a fleece or sweat shirt when we sat out side on their deck enjoying a beer and appetizers.  We had not seen them in a week, so we had lots to talk about.  Around 7:25, Ron put the unhusked corn on the grill for 15 minutes, then the New York strips for another 15 minutes and we had a feast.  We gave Ron a solar powered teddy bear on a swing, to go with last years wind up frog that does back flips, both best sellers from the Dollar Store.  He was, of course, overwhelmed with joy and at our thoughtfulness.  We drove home around 9:30, on a surprisingly empty RT 394.  Both of us were tired, from  getting up early, not sleeping as well as we would have liked, so we were off to bed early.

Mc Clure's Antique Bell

I finished my Olen Steinhauer novel, THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, his first which I did not much like. And I started the highly recommended first novel by Smith Henderson, FOURTH OF JULY CREEK, about a social worker in the wilds of Montana, in the 1980's.

Hazy Days of Summer

5:58

Up at 5:45, a close morning, quite warm, 70º, overcast with thunderstorms forecast for later in the day.  I am warm already, so it's going to be a hot and humid day, like yesterday where it got up to the high 80's late afternoon though it was a great day to be on the water.  When you get too warm, 'go jump in the lake.'

Yesterday was one of those days where you seemed busy all day but when you think back on it, you cannot remember what kept you so busy! So, I know in the morning I worked on the garage, my grill, the weeds in the lake, and got things ready for my mid afternoon trip to the store.  How that kept me busy much of the morning I am not sure but it did.  The same for Evie inside, busy with various things, organizing for our kids in four days.  Before lunch, we both worked in the lake, cutting weeds, a seemingly endless task but we finally have them under control...for now.  Our grandchildren will have a weedless swimming area.

We both relaxed some after lunch because I was going on a mega shopping trip, as was Evie.  We both left around 2:30, Evie to Sam's, the mall, the dentist, the hairdresser.  I went to pick up my boat cover, promised it would be done by noon but it wasn't.  They had not even touched it...typical.  I then returned bottles and cans, and filled up my second propane tank, making sure I am ready for barbecuing without a hitch.  Then on to Sam's, to fill up five gallon gas cans for the boat.  Then, I ended my shopping at Wegman's, stocking up on all the foods the kids enjoy, like cereals, sodas, and ice cream.  My cart was overflowing as I left the store.  Finally, I stopped at the Chautauqua Lake Association, to drop off a check for lake control and Ginny, our favorite waitress from the long defunct Bud's Carriage House was still working there.

I returned home around 4:00 and because Evie was still out, I decided to go kayaking despite the heat of the afternoon.  I paddled over to Long Point, followed its curve where boats were tied together, families socializing and swimming along the narrow beach.  One of the families had a huge water mat, 6 feet by 18 feet, and five or six kids were playing on it.  I asked the boaters about it; he said it was called simply a 'water mat,' and it cost 700 dollars.  Whoa!  I paddled on, stopping twice to submerge myself in the lake, cooling off.  Despite the heat, it was a fun paddle, and I was gone for around an hour.

We relaxed, when Evie returned, on the front porch with a beer, despite the heat and humidity.  We had Trader Joe's cooked ribs for dinner, with cole slaw and home fries.  We watched Stewart and Colbert and HBO's The Leftovers, which is not grabbing us much.  We may have to put it aside and I have not heard much talk about the show, not a good thing.

I am going to yoga in Westfield this morning, at Studio at Panterra, with my neighbor's daughter, Kathy Leonard.  She has never been to this studio and I thought she would enjoy the class with our local yoga guru, Dariel Woltz.