I was surprised to wake up to a cloudless, orange tinged sky and it's colder outside than usual, about 15 degrees, and a snow alert starts later today, with 5-7 inches expected over night. Whoopee. I want the snow to return, the sloppy, wet drizzle of the past week, to disappear. It's supposed to be nice most of the day, I think, and I would like to cross country ski but the lake still looks frozen and icy, with little if any accumulated snow.
Rob, Heather, and Ella Austin came over yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours. It was really fun to see them and they seem very happy, three kids, the oldest an 8th grader. They live in Pittsburgh, where Robbie is a consultant for the Dinali Group, from San Francisco, and Heather still works part time for her law firm in Cleveland. They live in Mt Lebanon, at least that's where there kids go to school. They bought a condo at CI 3 years ago at # 2 Pine, just inside the North Gate. They seem very much the same, worried about their eldest, who seems to be growing up too fast, involved in Jack's soccer, and loving 3 year old Ella's charm. We had Turkish tea, chocolate chip cookies, and reminisced about the good old days at Reserve. We really enjoyed seeing them and found out we had quite a few acquaintances in common, as they knew all of my Breakfast Club group and Evie's Ladies of the Night. They were contemporaries with the Heinz's and Johnson's children and knew Roberta Mc Kibbin pretty well, as Cle and Penny, Rob's parents, were the their neighbors and I guess did not get along with them very well. Robby seems to have many jobs over the past 15 years, in contrast to Tommy who has been at USA-800 since the beginning. I sense Rob is still a bit unsettled about his vocation but I may be reading him wrong.
We watched an emotionally draining movie last night because it reminded me of Mom and Dad's final years, called THE SAVAGES, with Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Both were amazing, as a brother and sister who must confront their father's descent into Alzheimer's, someone they have not seen in years. They bring him to a nursing home in Buffalo, a city where Hoffman teaches, and both are forced to see up close the indignity and awfulness of a nursing home and impending death. Neither deal with their father's demise very well but what is 'well' in something as terrible as this descent. It ultimately brings them closer together; they do what they can for their father, who they never really loved much because he was such a small part in their lives, a dysfunctional father. The setting works really well, the film starting in Sun City, AZ, where he lives with his girl friend of 20 years, who dies, leaving the father with no where to live, thus the move to Buffalo, a dying city as well, especially in the winter, in an underclass neighborhood. Linney's character is complicated, by her relationship with a married actor, who she eventually leaves at the end of the film. It's a movie where you wonder why they made it as it's not a feel good movie but it is a realistic look at what we all face, failing parents, their death, and the thought that this too is what we will have to face someday, as the parent this time, not the child. Yuck.
A beautiful day at the lake, lots of activity, lots of people up for President's Day; most of our neighbors are out on the lake, walking across to Long Point, just enjoying the sun, blue lake, and being on the lake. Even the dogs are outside, enjoying it all. Unfortunately, we have not been out, still a bit afraid to do much with Evie's gums, but tomorrow, we are hoping we can get out there, or at least do some skiing on the lake, especially if it snows tonight. I did go over to Turner to work out for an hour but it was not much fun and I was out of breath too soon. I shot some baskets, rowed, and used the treadmill, none too vigorously, just enough to get some exercise. Evie got dinner ready for the Mc Clures, so we are now waiting for them to arrive, listening to the new music we have downloaded from Itunes. How nice to have 10-15 new songs we enjoy; when working out, they make so much different, as the times goes quickly.
We also started watching an older English series called TO SERVE THEM ALL OF MY DAYS, based on a novel both of us have read about an teacher in Great Britain who, devastated by WWI, ends up finding himself and his vocation teaching at a public school. It follows his career, from new teacher to eventually a loved Headmaster. It's a bit dated but still fun to watch, especially the picture of the 'old boys', who are not very welcoming to the new teacher, who is filled with enthusiasm and new ideas, both lacking in all of them.
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