-17.5 Degrees on a Moonlit Morning

I cannot believe how cold it is outside, the lowest temperature I ever remember.  The front yard is ghostly as there are strange shadows across the front lawn, a result of the moon still up high, hanging in the west sky, back behind our willow tree.  That's what casts shadows across the whiteness of our lawn.  I slept fitfully but it feels good to be up early in my own house.  The inside temperature was 54 degrees, so I turned on the fireplace as well as raised the thermostat.  I don't think we will be venturing outside today for any reason though it's supposed get into the twenties later in the day.  The coldest nights always seem to be those when the sky is clear, stars are out, moon is somewhat full.  I just heard that Chautauqua Lake schools are closed which is rare, so it really is cold if the local schools close.  Usually it's because of a snowstorm, not extreme cold.  I suppose they don't want the kids outside for even brief periods of time.

It's almost 7:00, an amazingly beautiful morning, with the entire eastern coast line tinged with pink giving way to light blue, with a couple of  horizontal slashes of dark gray clouds floating in the skyline.  I have rarely seen it so clear and spectacular.  It's 8:30, warmed up a bit, as it's only -12 and some fisherman have just trudged out on the lake, to the right of our house and out about 100 yards.  I cannot believe they are out there in this cold; they do have a tent and must have some kind of heater inside.

Evie's off at the gym working out; it's warmed up a bit, to 19 degrees and there's a light snow falling.  I have my Turkish tea brewing, my cup out, and it feels good to be sitting inside a warm house, not venturing out into the cold.  Just finished my sixth Jack Reacher novel and have starting reading Patti Smith's JUST KIDS, the winner of the National Book Award for non fiction.  So far it's very readable and interesting, a look at both the sixties and seventies through the eyes of a rock icon.  I downloaded my first app from Apple a week ago called Yummy Soup, a recipe importer and organizer but I don't know enough about how it works, how it saves you time yet to know if it was worth 15 bucks.