Waiting patiently - sort of - for summer 2009 to arrive

VALOIS, New York, USA - The weather has not been bad, exactly, but summer isn't quite here. Sunday, the Admiral and I attended a party just down the lake (traveling by boat to get there, of course) and had a lovely couple of hours in relatively warm weather on a deck overlooking the lake.

We stopped at Cousin Roger's to pick up he and his wife Nancy for the short voyage and had a great time at the party - kind of a summer-is-almost-here celebration. The party followed a huge breakfast at the Hector Volunteer Fire Department firehouse, a monthly event held to raise money for the department.

But when we powered back to our dock, just after dark, the 75-degree temperatures had given way to 60 degrees. An hour later, it was 55 and I almost lit a fire in the fireplace.


Spirit of Louise at the Wolf's dock


Rowboat heads down lake

Cold or hot, my thoughts frequently wander to the Pink Flamingo and I wonder what's happening back in Arroyo Seco. Our amigos Chena and Chon did email once to say that the rain hasn't started and life continues as normal there - with normal meaning that temperatures and humidity have shot up. We found out today that our palapa roof restoration project has not been started, apparently, even though the contractor promised it would be done by this Friday.

Oh, Mexico...

But on a foray to the neighboring city of Penn Yan a week ago, we ran across some perfect decorations for the Pink Flamingo, though I am not sure how we would get them into our suitcases. I suspect I can show them to an ironworker-welder-artist we heard of in Mexico who will be able to duplicate them quite nicely.


Pink Flamingos in Penn Yan, New York

While we were in Penn Yan I also ran across yet another boat that I coveted on sight. In fact, if the price tag had been a tad more reasonable, we might have added the boat to the fleet.

(A tad by the way is slightly larger than a scoch, but smaller than a wee bit.)

The boat is a sister ship to one a high school amigo piloted around Chautauqua Lake in the mid 1960s. This unit is totally restored (the sales paperwork claims, anyway).

It would certainly look nice zipping up and down Seneca Lake.


Century powerboat


Century price and spec sheet

The rest of this week is dedicated to putting the finishing touches on getting the house, the guest house and the dock and waterfront ready for friends and guests. After Saturday's memorial service in Hewlett for my late brother-in-law, Bill Kearney, we hatched plans with family members for lots of visits to Valois, as well as at least one trip by myself and the Admiral back to the New York City environs.

This was the summer I had vowed to get Bill to visit us here, even if I had to truss him up and drag him. Once here, we knew he would love the countryside.

And he would have thought that purchasing that Century powerboat made perfect sense - for me.