Wild Winds, Snow Flurries, Getting Colder

7:32

8:25

8:28

Woke at 7:20 to howling winds, much of the night as well, a light covering of snow on the lawn and a completely open lake, not for long I suspect.  It's not very inviting outside, fog and snow flurries obscure the view, trees wave wildly, and it's cold, 26º compared to yesterday's high in the 60's.  Ah the fickle weather gods, especially Aeolus, Odysseus's nemesis, the God of Wind.  He's blowing the snow off off roofs, tree branches as I speak.

Yesterday was pretty much a carbon copy of the day before.  Yoga at 10:00 for me, a good class while Evie went off to the YMCA for her workout.  I picked her up afterward, and we went to shop for the first time since returning to the lake.  First, Sam's Club, to get some gas, pick up a few staples, and their 7.99 large pizza, which we have come to enjoy much more than pizzas from various pizza shops around the lake, plus it's half the price.  On to Wegman's, to spend a hundred dollars on practically nothing, having bought no meat as well.  It's hard to believe the inflation rate was just 1% this past year.  Food certainly seems to have jumped.

A turkey wrap for lunch, with vegetable soup, as we watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, then a relaxing afternoon, some TV, reading, and Turkish tea to make it compete.  I rode my stationary bike for around 35 minutes, long enough to work up a sweat before dinner.  We watched Charlie Rose before dinner, while sipping a glass of wine.  He interviewed the short story writer George Saunders and actor Bradley Cooper, the start of Silver Linings Playbook.  This show can be so good.  For dinner, we had the pizza, along with a salad, satisfying and easy.  Not much to watch on TV so we tried a show someone recommended on Netflix called Scandal.  A bit cheesy and predictable, about a woman who fixes problems in Washington, D.C., but her life is complicated by the fact that the President of the US is in love with her, imagine that, creating 'big problems.'  Clintons' final four years has certainly created fodder for the entertainment industry.

I am hoping Evie and I can get our exercise in this morning but the weather looks so wild and unpleasant at the moment as well as lake effect snow predicted that we might just have to stay home and hunker down.

The Big Melt Down

7:15

7:10

It's 7:10, have my coffee, Morning Joe is on the radio, and there's a slight ribbon of pink off over Bemus.  It's an ungodly 57º outside, windy, with various flood, wind, even snow warnings for the day. When I opened the door, I could hear the chirping of birds reminiscent of a spring morning.  This warm spell will be brief, most of today, but I doubt if any snow will be left, other than where the plow has been.

I went to yoga, classical, yesterday and surprise, there were six of us, one of them former Woodlawner Julia Lysinski.  It was good to see her again, and she filled me in on what it's like to take a yoga class at the Studio at  Panterra in Westfield.  I am tempted to take one of the seven week courses, just to see what it's like to take a class under a more strict but extremely knowledgeable teacher.  And I like the idea of someone different, as each teacher has their own way, both good and bad.  It was slushy, rainy, foggy,and warm, easy driving except around our yard where the slush and ice were so thick that it pulled on the wheels.

Late Afternoon Fog (Chautauqua in Black and White)

Not much going on the rest of the day, no hikes or walks because of the inclement weather, mostly rain and wind.  I did write up a couple of book reviews, caught up on that now, which feels good.  And I am enjoying Elizabeth Strout's AMY AND ISABELLE, an earlier novel by the writer of OLIVE KITTERIDGE, which I loved. Both novels have strong, woman as their protagonists, both are set in small towns, exploring the relationships usually within families, friends, and work. About 2:00, Evie went off to Lakewood, to work out at the YMCA.  It was a scary drive, however, as the fog was so heavy she could barely see the cars in front of her.  Not fun.  Late afternoon, I worked out on my stationary bike for about forty minutes.  Thank goodness for my Mini Ipod, as riding inside is boring but music makes it much more fun.

We had a good old American dinner, comfort food extraordinaire, MEATLOAF, with potatoes and salad, and lots of ketchup, to splash liberally on the meatloaf.  We even have enough left over for three or four meat load sandwiches (my favorite on white bread) or another dinner.  We watched the next episode of Downton Abbey, were shocked at the death of Sybil, the youngest daughter, in child birth.  It was a moving scene, one of the better episodes this year.

L.A. REQUIEM: ROBERT CRAIS

Like Crais's other LA novels, this follows both Joe Pike and Elvis Cole as the unravel the murder of a young Hispanic, a girl who also just happened to date Joe in his early years.  It's complicated by the fact that the police, one officer in particular, aptly named Krantz, has a grudge against Joe, making their search for the killer more difficult as the police are no help.  And the officer ends up deciding that the evidence for the murder points to Joe, arresting him and putting him in jail with other bad guys, one who recognizes Joe as the cop who put him in jail ten years ago when Joe was still on the police force.  As you can imagine, he makes the mistake of coming after Joe, who takes care of him in typical Jack Reacher style.   It acts as a reminder to the other inmates to stay away; when transferred to another facility, Joe escapes and ends up solving the crime, tracing the murders back to the police station and crooked cops, of course.  He gets exonerated in the end, reluctantly, by the police.  Elvis, meanwhile, acts as Joe's savior and investigator, while trying to put together a relationship with his new girl friend, fresh in from Houston to live with Elvis.  When she finds that Elvis continually puts Joe first, even risking her and her son's lives, she leaves him.  I got a little bored towards the end, as the unraveling took place much to slowly, with the typical Joe Pike 'wham bam thank you Ma'am.'  I will put the next one on hold for awhile, till I am bored with other stuff and need some fluff.

AT LAST: EDWARD ST. AUBYN

I thought I was  reading the first book in a trilogy by St. Aubyn only to discover it' the last book, mostly taking place at the funeral for Patrick Melrose's mother, an American heiress and aristocrat who married  a sadistic brute of an Englishmen.  It's a highly acclaimed and advertised novel, I found, as the latest edition of The New Yorker magazine has quoted various writers as saying: "One of the most amazing reading experiences I've had in a decade," and "Some of the most perceptive, elegantly written, and hilarious novels of our era," and finally one I mostly agree with, "Vicious, brilliant little books."  As Patrick winds his way through the day of his mother's funeral, we meet most of the cast from early books, I think, just older, his fop of older friend, Nicholas Pratt, disdainfully critical of anything new.  He dies of a heart attack at the end, fulminating at an insult, well deserved after reading about him.  We meet Patrick's ex wife, who arranges the funeral because Patrick couldn't, he's too inept and depressed to do it himself.   We meet Aunt Nancy, who covets all, mostly because her father loss most of his fortune in the Great Depression, leaving her with only millions, which she spent and spent and spent.  Patrick's only solace, his redeeming humanity, is his love for his children.  There's not much of a plot, just meeting various odd people who have come to know Patrick's mother, who have had some part in her life, who no doubt appeared in earlier novels.  I don't think you needed to have read the other novels first though it would have been nice.  I would be happy to go back and read them even though I know enough now of Patrick's early years to know I am not sure I want to read them.  St. Aubyn certainly can write, with a often dark, witty sense of humor.  He reminded me of another English writer, John Lanchester, also a brilliant stylist and immensely erudite and interesting.  Both writers demand that you go back and read back over certain passages because they are difficult, but also because they are perceptive and original in thought.  I will go back and read the earlier novels, for the language alone, but also the deft and brilliant characterizations.

An Attempt At Understanding Why So Many Veterans Commit Suicide: From THE YELLOW BIRDS: Kevin Powers

From THE YELLOW BIRDS: KEVIN POWERS (PP. 143-47)

On returning to his home town after a year of the Iraqi War:

“Small lines wound their way up and down the surface of the stump on which I sat.  They were intricate and gouged out or termited into a pattern that struck me as oddly orderly.  Luke (a high school buddy) and the rest of the boys and girls still splashed in the water, taking turns diving from the broad gray rocks into the draft of the current that swept them ten or twenty feet down stream like an amusement park ride.  They were beautiful.  I had to resist the urge to hate.

I had become a kind of cripple.  They were my friends, right?  Why didn’t I just wade out to them?  What would I say? “Hey, how are you?”  They’d say.  And I’d answer, “I feel like I’m being eaten from the inside out and I can’t tell anyone what’s going on because everyone is so grateful to me all the time I’ll feel like I’m ungrateful or something.   Or like I’ll give away that I don’t deserve anyone’s gratitude and really they should all hate me for what I’ve done but everyone loves me for it and it driving me crazy.”  Right.

Or should I have said that I wanted to die, not in the sense of wanting to throw myself off that train bridge over there, but more like wanting to be asleep forever because there isn’t any making up for killing women or even watching women get killed, or for that matter killing men and shooting them in the back and shooting them more times than necessary to actually kill them and it was like just trying to kill everything you saw sometimes because it felt like there was acid seeping down into your soul and then your soul is gone and knowing from being taught your whole life that there is no making up for what you are doing, you’re taught that your whole life, but then even your mother is so happy and proud because you lined up your sight posts and made people crumple and they were not getting up ever and yeah they might have been trying to kill you too so you say, What are you gonna do? , but really it doesn’t matter because by the end you failed at the one good thing you could have done, the one person you promised would live is dead, and you have seen all things die in more manners than you’d like to recall and for a while the whole thing fucking ravaged your spirit like some deep-down shit, man, that you didn’t even realize you had until only the animals made you sad, the husks of dogs filled with explosives and old arty shells and the fucking guts and everything stinking like metal and burning garbage and you walk around and the smell is deep down into you now and you say, How can metal be so on fire? And Where is all this fucking trash coming from?  And even back home you are getting whiffs of it an then that thing you started to notice slipping away is gone and now it’s becoming inverted, like you have bottomed out in your spirit but yet a deeper hole is being dug because everybody is so fucking happy to see you, the murderer, the fucking accomplice, the at-bare-minimum bearer of some fucking responsibility, and everyone wants to slap you on the back and you start to want to burn the whole goddam country down, you want to burn every goddam yellow fucking ribbon in sight, and you can’t explain it but it’s just, like, Fuck you, but then you signed up to go so it’s all your fault, really, because you went on purpose, so you are in the end doubly fucked, so w why not just find a spot and curl up and die and let’s make it as painless as possible because you are a coward and, really, cowardice  got you into this mess because you wanted to be a man and people made fun of  you and pushed you around in the cafeteria and the hallways in high school because you like to read books and poems sometimes and they’d call you fag and really deep down you know you went because you wanted to be a man and that’s never gonna happen now and you’re too much of a coward to be a man and get it over with so why not find a clean, dry place and wait it out with it hurting as little as possible and just wait to  go to sleep and not wake up and fuck ‘em all.

I started crying.   Through my tears night had fallen.  The girls in the hot summer night were toweling off and laughing, standing on the darkening rocks beneath the soft light of the lampposts on the nearby train bridge.  I got up and followed a path that skirted the banks of the river and I followed it aimlessly.  At the edge of the river, I waded in.  It was hot then, but the river cooled me, and the moon above the trees on the hilltop, blocking the streetlights, kept the river flickering softly, and I felt myself calmly fading in it.  As I leaned forward and floated, I drifted a little, a little down, a little to sleep.

Goddamn the noise.  The yelling closed in.  Them yelling.  “Get him out.  Goddamn it, get his ass out.”  I shocked awake and spat up water from the river and they banged on my chest until I spat out more and I lay on the bank, drunk and smiling, looking out at the strange faces gathered there.  I lay for a little while half in and out of the water and it ran over my feet, lapping up and down and cooling them, shallow enough to be safe where I lay.  I smiled absently and thought of the old palomino nuzzling me as I came around around.  Whatever.  They called me in the lamplight.  Night now. “

THE YELLOW BIRDS: KEVIN POWERS

A critically acclaimed first novel by Kevin Powers, it explores, like another novel,  BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALF TIME WALK, the effects of the war in Iraq on the soldiers when they return to the States.  The protagonist, John Bartle, a lost twenty one year old, enlists in the Army to give his life some meaning and direction.  He certainly gets that during his year in Iraq.  At boot camp, he becomes friends with Murph another lost seventeen year old.  They become good friends and Bartle makes the mistake, as they are ready to head to Iraq, of promising Murph's Mom that he will make sure that Murph comes home.  The story weaves back and forth between their experiences in Iraq, in Tal Afar, and Bartles return one year later.  We don't exactly know what happened when the novel opens, as we get the story of Tal Afar in bits and pieces, as well as Bartle's adjustment to civilian life on his return.  We slowly are taken, by Bartle,  through brutal battles with insurgents, until we begin to see the toll that war and death have on the living, Murph in particularly.  He basically loses control, gives up when he watches a pretty medical nurse blown apart by a mortar round.  Two days later, he is missing  in action and the entire platoon must go through the village, street by street, rifles drawn, looking for Murph.  A vagrant tells them of having seen a naked American walking through the streets a few hours ago.  They find Murph at the base of a mosque, decapitated and disemboweled.  Instead of returning his body to Headquarters, Sterling the Sergeant and Bartle make the instantaneous decision to lower Murph's remains into the Euphrates and let Murph float away.

Dealing with this incident takes over the last half of the book, as Bartle is arrested for not returning the body, court martialed  and imprisoned for a few months, and Sterling, the tough no nonsense Sergeant kills himself.  This book, better than anything else I have read about the aftermath of combat, displays the angst and depression that often adheres to our veterans, often leading them to commit suicide.  My only reservation would be the over use of descriptive passages, somewhat reminiscent of a 19th century novel.  I got tired of reading about the sand, the sky, the town, the desert.  Otherwise, a moving and realistic picture of war and its effects on the soldiers.

Warming Up and Foggy

8:00

Melting Snow and Ice On Lake

Slept in till 8:00, catching up on sleep I lost from this weekend in Vegas.  I can barely make out Bemus because of the fog.  The lake down towards Victoria looks  wet and slick, as the snow has melted.  It's 36ª out side, high near 50º today, perhaps 60º tomorrow.

We spent most of yesterday just getting used to life back here at the lake and unpacking.  I did get to Yin yoga, just what I needed, to refresh myself, body and mind.  It's the most attended class, likely because everyone seems to like Danielle our teacher, who heads the studio.  I stopped at Ryder's Cup for my coffee, talked with Joyce for a bit, the proprietor, then came home through the slush and drizzle, not a very inviting day.  So, we both stayed inside, no hikes or walks.  We are determined to simplify our house, especially clothes, and go through everything.  If we have not worn something in a year, we are giving it to Good Will or someone who can use it.  It's hard to throw away that camel hair topcoat from college, the Duffie coat I bought in London in 1977, the letter sweater from college, but why keep it.  I will never wear them, no one in the family would want it, so out it goes.  I am keeping my Varsity O jacket from Ohio University because I can still wear it, my letter sweater from Euclid High.  Two things only that don't deserve to stay.  Evie's doing the same thing but it takes her much longer than me and she has much more stored away.  We also heard from Tommy, who had not felt well in Vegas.  He had to stay home from work, go to the doctor, and take a new set of antibiotics, so the trip certainly did him no good.  There's nothing worst than having to fly or travel when you don't feel well.  I know he did not get back to the KC airport until midnight and had to drive home, with his flu.

We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, easy and available, since the meatballs were frozen, the sauce was from a bottle.  It's almost silly to make your own sauce because there are so many good ones out there and if you keep your eyes open, you can get them on sale so they are not too pricey.  We caught up on our TV shows, both Parenthood, great as usual, and Downton Abbey, wonderful acting.

I have little mojo this morning, the post trip blues, I suppose, where nothing seems interesting or inviting.  So, I will force myself to go to yoga, catch up on writing a couple of book reviews, read, take a nap, and think about dinner later today.  Evie's still sleeping and it's after 9:00.  She slept in till 10:00 yesterday, catching up on all the sleep she lost over the past two weeks.  It's great to have her home, I must say.  It's no fun 'home alone.'

Gray, Slush, Rain...Ah Chautauqua

8:00

Things never seem to change, for long.  Back at the lake, up at 8:00, to freezing rain, 33º out, and the temperature will get in to the forties later in the day, taking a winterland and turning it in to a mess.  I wish winter would make up its mind.

Yesterday was a surprisingly easy travel day for us.  I relaxed around the Marriott most of the morning, went to breakfast with my son Tom, had French toast coated with frosted lakes and cinnamon, quite good actually, while Evie and her sisters went back to the Mullens to finish cleaning up and say another good by to Pat and Leah.  They both seemed in decent shape after a difficult day, and Leah was up early and made breakfast for her father and Grandma Dorothy,  She flew back to college, Nevada Reno, in early afternoon.  

We left for the airport with Tommy, still suffering from a terrible sinus infection, around 12:30, to an airport about as crowded as I have seen.  As we sat waiting for a flight, a non stop  line of passengers, all ages, nationalities, shapes, and colors streamed by, either coming or going to Vegas.  Amazing, at least for me, that Vegas is such an attraction to people still.  Where's the recession, this cannot just be the top 2%?  Our flight was on time, I got a seat in the emergency row with no seat in front, so I could stretch my legs.  What a change from flying out.  And the flight took three and a half hours, versus the five plus hours on Friday.  No turbulence, and even Evie seemed to enjoy some of the flight, especially when we flew over the snow covered Rockies.  The Buffalo Airport was cold but not as cold as the 5º Friday morning.  I picked up my car, and we drove home, another easy, snow less and ice less hour and a half drive, as Evie and I talked the entire way.  The house was in good shape, thank goodness, and we stayed up till about 1:00 before going to be tired but happy to be home in our own bed, especially Evie.  It's been a very difficult two weeks for her.  Now we want to enjoy winter and Chautauqua for a couple of months before Spring arrives.  It may be Wednesday as the temperatures are supposed to be in the fifties before dropping again on Thursday or Friday. 

Back To The Lake

Evie and Tom,  Watching Henry Play Black Jack

The Petkovsek Sisters

Just got back from Starbucks with two big boys (coffees) and it's sunny outside, a miracle, an entirely different looking Marriott when there are blue skies.  We will have a relaxing morning, get some breakfast because we don't have to leave for the airport till around noon, flight at 3;00, arrive in Buffalo at 10:15, to the cold and hopefully no snow.

Best Breakfast in Las Vegas

Yesterday,  I was up early, 7:00, walked down through the Casino to pick up a couple of coffees for Evie and I.  We relaxed in our luxurious (for us) room, reading, surfing the Net, the usual until 10:30 when Evie met her sisters and Tom took them over to the Mullens, to get things ready for the gathering after the funeral.  Tommy came back to the hotel, picked me up and we went off to a highly recommended breakfast place, Hash House A Go Go, featured as well on Drive Ins, Diners, And Dives.  I can see why.  We got there at 11:30 on a Saturday and there was already a half hour wait for breakfast/lunch.  We were lucky to get seats at the bar within ten minutes, ordered a couple of bloody Marys and just enjoyed the scene.  I ordered the sage fried chicken benedict, with maple reduction, bacon mashed potatoes, biscuit, two eggs, and bacon, enough to feed a couple of people.  Tommy got the HH special, kind of an Eggs Benedict with spinach, bacon, roasted red pepper cream, on a biscuit and mashed potatoes,  you name it, also a huge serving.  Both were amazingly good and everything that appeared on the tables near us seemed equally tantalizing.  We took our time, enjoyed savoring the different flavors, and went back to the hotel to relax for an hour before going over to the Mullens.  I  took a walk through the Casino around noon and about 90% of the players were retirees like me, shoring up their retirement incomes no doubt.  It's amazing to see all the people gambling, enjoying it (basically losing their money), but for most, I suppose, it's entertainment and harmless, as along as you set a limit on your spending and don't go too often.  I doubt many do.

Sage Fried Chicken

Hash House Special

The service for my sister was just perfect, the best part, lots of people showed up, over a hundred I would think and many police officers because, Pat, her husband, works for the Vegas police, maintaining their cars.  It was at a Spiritual Center, in a mall, not much like a church, just a stage in front of folding chairs, but the people were nice, they emphasized that death is really a 'transition,' the new way I guess.  My son Tom read a brief biography of Laura, a few New age songs were played, Laura's daughter, Leah, read a poem she had written for her Mom, a couple of female ministers spoke, then they invited  any one who wished to come up and speak about Laura, a Quaker tradition which I tend to like.  I think about five people got up to speak, did well, I thought and I felt compelled to speak as well for the family though I did not know if I could get through it.  I knew none of the sisters could.  So, it was a nice way to say good by to Laura.

We went back to the Mullens, for a gathering, with lots of food, fiddles we bought at Costco but lots of Laura's friends made food as well, so we had plenty.  It was really a nice gathering, people seemed to want to stay, and it was fun getting to know some of Laura's friends from Las Vegas. And it was good for Pat and the two kids, Leah and Sean, to have their friends there as well. About 7:00, Pat asked all of us to all go outside, as the Mini Cooper Club of Las Vegas, which the Mullens belong to, were giving a salute to Laura.  There we about ten or twelve cars, all with engines running, head lights on, and they gave three taps of their horns, about thirty seconds of silence, then everyone made noise, the Mini Coopers, revving their engines and blowing their horns,  the rest of us screaming and yelling a salute to Laura.  A nice touch

Mini Cooper Salute to Laura

Most people left around 9:30, Evie's sisters cleaned up, and we went home to the  packed, rambunctious Casino for about an hour, to unwind, before going to bed around 11:00.  Some were big winners.  Claire, Evie's sister won $200.00 Friday night, her husband Henry, around a $100.00 on Blackjack, and their daughter Becky won $ 400.00 last night on Roulette. So, some people do win.  O, yea, Evie won $10.00!

Sadly, In Vegas

Casino at Our Marriott Hotel

Leah and Grade School Friends

Leah Making Rugelach Pastry for Tomorrow

Evie and her Sister Jean

I slept in till around 6:45 Vegas time, 9:45 Chautauqua time.  I was worried I might wake up much earlier.  I got dressed and walked down to the empty Casino, just a few hard core at the slots, black jack, and other assorted games. I went to the restaurant area, a 3.99 breakfast if you wanted, to a Starbucks, got two large coffees, for about the same price I would pay in Chautauqua.  Took  the Starbcuks back to the room, Evie was up, so it was back to normal, almost, sipping coffee, on our Mac or Ipad, but in a Vegas Hotel, not on the Strip but about seven or eight miles north.

Yesterday's plane ride was long, five plus hours, to Vegas, though as I mentioned, I was lucky with the roads, no ice or snow, to Buffalo.  The plane was packed, all of us like sardines in what seems like the ever shrinking air plane seat.  Fortunately, I did get an aisle seat though that does not help much because if I put my feet in the aisle, people trip over them, so  I don't.

My brother in law, Henry, met me at the airport, a good guy, so I did not have to wait an hour for my son Tommy to come in.  We went straight to the Marriott Resort, a combination hotel, spa, and casino, not far from my sister in law's house.  The funeral service for Evie's sister, Laura, is tomorrow at 4:00, so all the sister's have been planning the service, and getting food ready for the gathering at the house after the service.  The problem is, as always, no one knows how many people are coming, so you end up buying more than you need.  Perhaps we will eat it all.  We hung out the Mullens, then Tom and I went back to the hotel to relax. I was  really wiped out from not sleeping Thursday night, so I slept for an hour or so, not enough, but I did feel more energetic.  I shouldn't complain of this lack of sleep because this has been Evie's life for the past ten days, sleeping on couches, sitting up with Laura, helping her night and day if needed, all in a strange house, getting little sleep, always tired.

We all went back to the Mullens, for a dinner of Costco pizza, and sat around there talking with Leah and her two buddies from college, sipping wine, and getting things organized for tomorrow. Evie, Jean and Claire went off to the airport to pick up Elaine, the fourth sister, who was flying in from Chicago.  We went back to the hotel around 9:00 and  I went to bed but Evie and her sisters went off to the Casino to gamble for a bit.  A long day for me.

Flying to Las Vegas, Way Too Early

Kinney's Woods

Park Way

4:00 PM

Vogeding Tree

Woodlawn

Up at 2:30 with hardly any sleep, just tossing and a turning, as I want to be off in about thirty five minutes.  It's cold, 5º, but not snowing, though I assume I will have flurries on the way to the Buffalo Airport.  My plane leaves at 7:05, with WiFI, so I can fly and read the NYTimes or watch a movie.  What a wonderful way to travel.

Yesterday seemed to fly by for some reason, though I was already mostly packed.  Yoga was good, lots of people, good for my back and psyche, stopped at Wegman's, got home and had lunch, then started to get things ready for the trip.  I want the car packed before I go to bed, which should be easy.  I am not taking that much but we might go to Scottsdale for a few days which means I have to bring a bit more than I intended.  The weather has been quite nice this afternoon, and the sun has even appeared at times, a surprise.  It is still cold but warming a bit tomorrow, then some each day during the weekend. By the time we return, the road ways will covered with sand and soot, the snow starting to melt.  C'est la vie.

I did go for a great hike through Woodlawn/Victoria woods around 4:00, sun shining most of the way, cold but not unbearable, as I worked up a sweat, and it was great just being in the woods with the snow brightened by the sun, the sky an amazing blue.  The good life.  I had a burger and fries at the Seezurh House, not much fun when you are eating alone.  Where are the Mc Clures when I need them?

I had an easy drive to the airport, #90 was clear, #394 to Westfield had a light snow most of the way.  Not much traffic, obviously, long lines to check in as many flights seem to leave very early, as if this is a starting point for many airlines.  It's now 5:40 and I have a good hour wait till we board.  Let's hope I get an aisle seat or the emergency row or it will be an uncomfortable flight.

Two Degrees Out, With Flurries

7:32

7:59

8:00

Up at 6:45 and was shocked by how cold it was outside, even in side, 55º, so I turned up the thermostat to 60 and put on a fleece.  Right now it's 7:30 and the lake, the outside, looks like the frozen tundra, flurries, white lake, skies so gray I can hardly make out the Bemus shore line.

Our Home

Yesterday's yoga was cancelled, the wimps, so I was at lost as to what to do in the morning.  It's amazing how something like yoga class quickly becomes part of your routine.  So, I whipped out a yoga video my daughter Jill had given me and followed the asanas (physical exercises) on the screen for about 45 minutes.  It's pretty good, and they have a variety of routines which I liked.  About 11:30, I drove over to the CI, after cleaning about eight inches of snow off my car and doing some snow shoveling.  I returned a book, the library warm and cosy, picked up THE YELLOW BIRDS, a highly recommended book about the Iraq War and then cross country skied around the CI for about forty five minutes.  The roads were all plowed, but they were fine for skiing because there was a nice layer of snow, not ice.  It was beautiful, the tree branches bent low by the clinging snow, the occasional sun shine. And like my walk yesterday, despite the single digit temperatures, I was never cold, working up a sweat.

Chautauqua Institute

I spent my afternoon, as usual, reading, watching Stewart and Colbert as I ate lunch, then around 4:30 I went for a walk around the campground.  It was invigorating, breathing in the cold air, a slight breeze, a few snow flakes, no one around, just me.  I thought I might go out for dinner to the Seezurh for a burger, but the snow picked up, so I did not want to chance fighting the storm.  So, I put together another taco salad, watched some TV, finished AT LAST, started THE YELLOW BIRDS and went to bed very tired for some reason.

Today, I have yoga,  I think, and I will spend the day getting reading for my flight to Las Vegas tomorrow morning at 7:05 from Buffalo.  I will have to get up around 3:00, to make sure I take my time on the Interstates, as I am not sure of road condition.  Only an inch of snow is predicted for the next twenty four hours so I assume the roads should be fine.

A Foot And A Half of Snow and Seven Degrees In The Shade

7:58

A Fat Happy Cardinal

Dusk

Snow Shoeing Victoria

Up at 6:30 and Shane has already plowed the road, cleared our parking space.  He's very efficient this year, with a new truck.  We must have gotten six or seven inches of snow last night, at least that's what it looks like on my car.  More expected during the day, into the evening, then supposedly it will taper off for a few days.  It is just beginning to lightened up, so I can make out the snow covered lake, the far shore, a dark band above the snow, beneath the gray sky.  No animal tracks in the front yard, just markings where snow must have fallen from the trees.

Yesterday, I did venture out early, to go to yoga, with only two of us there.  The roads were cleared though snow covered, as was the Woodlawn area, so if you took your time, it was not bad driving.  Traffic was spare though it was after rush hour, about 9:30.  Most of yesterday's snow seemed to have fallen overnight, as it did last night.  During the day, we had a few snow flurries but that's about it.  Because it was so cold out, a 7º outside temperature translate to about 15º below zero with wind chill, at least that's what it is at the moment according to NPR.  It makes it a bit scary to go out side for a long period of time.

I did strap on my snow shoes for a walk in Victoria woods for about a half an hour.  It was tough going   because the snow was at least a foot deep but wonderful to be in the woods, no sounds, a few animal tracks, the tree trunks and branches frosted with snow.  Surprisingly, I did not feel cold, perhaps because there was little wind and I even worked up a sweat by the time I got home.

I am feeling a bit of cabin fever, afraid to go out because of the treacherous roads or blizzard like conditions or the wind chill if I walk.  It is getting up to 15º today, warming up I after yesterday's high of around 7º.  So I sit cosy in my house, with a good book, the radio, and tea and wait out the day, so to speak.  The sky has just opened some, I can see blue sky, some sunlight above the trees, as the day begins.

For dinner, I made tacos, easy, just brown some ground beef, add the mixture, heat the tacos, cut up some lettuce and tomatoes, and its ready and good.  I watched Traffic, an older movie I have always liked, from 2000 about the drug trade in between Mexico and California.  It was still a good film, amazing textures and colors, when shot in Mexico.  Michael Douglas starred in it as the US Drug Czar who finds his daughter is an addict and he must make the choice between family and career.  It's much more complicated than that, of course, with drug traffickers, much violence,  but Douglas and his family are the human side.

The sun has just peaked out from behind the clouds for a moment, filling the living room...amazing.  Now it's gone back to hiding.

Laura Petkovsek Mullen: January 17, 1960-January 21, 2013

Laura, When I First Started Dating Evie

Laura  as a Teen

Laura, with Daughter, Leah, 2009

Laura, with Marisa and Evie, 2008

Leah, Sean, Laura, and Pat Mullen, December, 2012

Evie's youngest sister, Laura, died yesterday afternoon in Las Vegas, after an eighteen year battle with breast cancer.  She was funny, tough, courageous, stubborn, thoughtful and loving, the best.  We will miss her dearly.

Six Inches Of Snow On A Cold, Cold Morning

My Lovely Granddaughter,  Marisa Albarran, Irish Dancing

7:26

Victoria Woods

Looking Towards Woodlawn

Beginning Blizzard Like Walk

Our Neighbors, At Least For Now

Up early, of course, to a snow covered yard, gray lake, and bitter cold.  I am sitting, watching the faux fire crackle, listening to NPR talk all about today's Inauguration.  Standing for hours among millions of other people is the last thing I would want to do, especially in the winter.  Who are these people? How can they afford to take a couple days off?  It's 16º outside,  two to three inches of snow are expected, with a low of 5º tonight.

Yesterday was much colder than Saturday's 40's, with snow flurries on and off during the day, though it picked up after dark, when we got maybe five inches during the night.  My only exercise of the day was to take a long morning walk when it was snowing, one of my favorite times to walk.  So I went up along Kinney's Run, crossed over to the Woodlawn/Victoria woods, as it snowed, blinding my view at times. I loved it, watching the ground turn white, the trees limbs white as well.  When I got to Victoria Road, I met a neighbor out in his yard, Roman Kneisky (something like that) who lives in the renovated gray house two up from Johnsons.  He and his wife are from Chardon, Ohio, love it here like us and hope to retire here in a couple of years.  He is a flyer, belongs to the Dart Airport Soaring Club.  Seems like a nice guy.  I walked up Victoria to #394, back to the lake, along the front lawns of Telkins and Fosters, as well as Woodlawn and home.  The lake is still open, and as the photograph shows, we still have our family of swans.  They have been here, in front of Woodlawn or the Campground for probably two weeks.  They spend a good part of their time, bottoms up, as they peck for weeds.

For breakfast,  I fried some bacon, cut it up in small pieces, and put it in scrabbled eggs, the way my Mom used to do.  This, along with a bagel with a smear of salmon/cream cheese made for a tasty breakfast.  As I write this, the lake is starting to appear, the sky lighten, so I am switching back to the couch, turning off the fireplace.  What luxury to have an instant fire. The lake is a dull gray, contrasting with the fluorescent whiteness of the snow on the lawn, on the tree trunks, while off in the distance, towards Bemus, it looks foggy and white from snow and ice.

The rest of the afternoon was a typical wasted January Sunday afternoon in the United States; I sat on my couch watching six hours of NFL football, at times exciting but mostly boring.  But what else was there to do, and nothing worth watching on TV.  I did finish, finally LA Requiem, by Robert Crais so I did accomplish something over the weekend.  I have not rode my bike yet; I remain part of the 98% who never use their exercise machine.  My goal for today....ride it!

Because I was lazy at dinner time,  I opened a can of Wegman's Kansas City barbecue beans, grilled a couple of dogs in butter,  smothered them with Kim Chee (Korean Spiced Cabbage), and I was a happy camper, sitting in my TV room, watching NFL football, with a Shock Top White Belgian Ale in hand.  The second game lasted till around 9:30, when I went upstairs to read, starting at new novel AT LAST by a highly regarded English novelist, Edward St. Aubyn.  It's the first part of a trilogy.  It's extremely well written, witty, insightful and I find myself going back and rereading certain passages, for their beauty as well as meaning.  It's not fluff like Jack Reacher in other words, more difficult to follow and read.

A Gray, Windy and Wild Morning

8:06

Woodlawn

Melting Ice

Ice Block at Wells Bay

Pizza and Wine at Bergens 

Betsy Bergin with Fox's Statuette

Woke up late, 8:00, to howling winds, lots of branches down in the yard, none major fortunately, 26º and it supposed to stay this way a good part of the day, with some snow later, none yet.  And it's getting much colder the next couple of days, highs in the teens...winter has arrived.

Yesterday was sunny and suprisingly warm most of the day.  I started it off with classical yoga, a full class for a Saturday and we worked most of the day on learning how to do a front bend, almost any kind of a bend without putting pressure on the lower back.  It was interesting, a revelation, and I am still not quite sure I am doing it right.  It was a good way to start the weekend.  I stopped at at the Transfer Station, arrived home and because it was sunny out, I put on my boots, life jacket, and kayaked for about an hour.  I paddled about thirty yards off shore, just beyond the ice and paddled down to Sandy Beach, where Wells Bay began when I was stopped by ice, the entire bay locked in.  So I paddled back the other way, beyond the campground to Whitney Bay, and encountered no ice blocks, just a single fishing boat, going after walleyes, having no luck so far.

I did not do much during the afternoon, no hike or walk, as I was feeling lazy. But at 3:30, I decided to go see LINCOLN, the movie, at the Mall.  I had mixed emotions, not sure I would like it though if anyone could make a compelling movie about the President, it would be Stephen Spielberg.  And I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the film, especially the performance by Daniel Day Lewis, who 'became' Lincoln in my mind.  It makes you see how hateful the two parties have always been towards each other, how good men have different ways of looking at the world and find opinions different from their own 'intolerable' if not crazy.  And it's also clear politics have always been dirty, resorting to bribes, perhaps money, almost anything to get votes.  Lincoln, of course, was not above it but came across as a master politician, someone who understood how to get what he wanted.  Tommy Lee Jones was 'perfect' as the leader of the abolitionist group, who compromises 'equality of races' for equal before the law.  It makes the Emancipation Proclamation possible even though it did not say 'negroes were equal to white men,' just in front of the law  When the voting was over, Stevens(Jones)  takes the what appears to be the signed proclamation home to his black maid, a woman he loved but most likely had not married.  I wonder if this is a true story.  There were lots of parallels between then and now, and my sympathies and Spielberg's lay with the liberal Republicans then, not the Democrats, who were then mostly southerners.  How times have changed!

I made salmon and garlic spinach for dinner, and just as I was pulling it out of the oven, my neighbor, Joe Bergen, stopped by and invited me to dinner.  I explained that I just pulled the fish out, but said I would stop over later if that was all right.  So I ate dinner, watched some of the Ohio State game and went over to Bergen's around 8:15.  The Kinney's were there as well as their son Andy and his girl friend Megan.  They were just starting to have pizza, so I planned it poorly, but they did not seem to care.  I sat with them, sipped wine, and we talked and reminisced until 10:30, boring the heck  out of Andy and his friend.  Joe and Betsy are going to Maui in a couple of weeks, so we talked about Hawaii, about movies, about the Kinney's sailing in Greece, lots about travels, good food, and movies, as both the Bergens and I had seen Zero Dark Thirty.  It was a fun night, much better then sitting home bored in front of the TV.  When I arrived home, I read for awhile  and it was easy to get to sleep as the howling winds had yet to begin.  I woke at 6:00, went back to sleep till 8:00.   NPR is off, so the winds must have done something with their transmitter, so I am listening to MSNBC,

Nothing planned for the day, hopefully a walk, then just lounging around, watching the two NFL games, perhaps making a meat loaf with mashed potatoes if I am really hungry.  If not, hot dogs and beans, easy and good.