LAKE EFFECT

 
I drive by Lake Erie weekly on my way to Lakewood, but rarely get out of my car. Kind of similar to a commuter on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago not exiting for a splash. But the weather has been so good this fall, and nobody is at the beach, so I’m getting out.

I get the same vistas as Chi. Maybe better. Way fewer people. I walk in the sand. Fort Lauderdale?

The sun was out on Monday — as usual! And it’s going up to 71 degrees today.

Charlevoix? Santa Monica? (Also, please note I don’t have Horseshoe Lake by my house anymore. The local sewer authority uprooted it. Long story).

At Lake Erie, there’s no booming music or open snack bars this time of year. It’s a bit like the scene from Jim Jarmusch’s movie Stranger than Paradise, where guys hung out by Captain Frank’s Lobster House on the East Ninth Street pier (1984).

The pier at Edgewater Beach: eerie. There are solo-travelers on the pier seated next to me, staring at the lake, trying to get their heads together, or so I imagine. At least that’s what I’m trying to do.

There are seagulls.

I hum “Moon River” and the Shema prayer. What can I say?

I wonder if I’ll continue to stop by the lake in the winter. That would be total Jarmusch: gray and tres cold. I might go. I like to punish myself.

Lake Erie, Edgewater Beach pier, Cleveland, October 2026.