Lake Unfreezes and Unseasonably Warm

8:00 AM

Skating on the Lake

Our neighbor's son, Steve Johnson and his fiancee

Yesterday's sunrise, about 7:35

Evie's Gateau Basque...Yum

Up at 7:00, just in time to listen to Only a Game on NPR, my routine for Saturday mornings.  It's 39 degrees outside, a bit cloudy but I assume it will clear up and we'll have a nice day, for April not January. Scott Simon just interviewed Augustus Scattergood, author of a young adult novel called Glory Be, about a young black girl who discovers they are closing the swimming pool three days before her birthday party, a perfect book for my granddaughters.  This is what I like most about this program, when they have an author on to talk about a book,  or a librarian with recommendations.  I have gotten smart enough to write them down or put them on my Amazon wish list.

Yesterday actually got up to 50 degrees and despite the warmth, our neighbors, the Johnson's were out  skating  literally 'on thin ice.'  It looked like great fun but also somewhat scary as John, the father, actually broke through in front of us, tumbling onto the ice. Fortunately, he did not seem to be hurt, just bruised. They did stay in close enough so if they did break the ice, it would be only two or three feet deep.  It was tempting but when John went in, I put the idea aside.  The day before, in fact, we looked out our window and two people were cross skiing on the lake in front of our house, about five feet from the shoreline.  We could not believe anyone would be out there on such a tenuous surface and found out the next day, it was also the Johnson's.  Steve is here on break from his teaching job at the University of Massachusetts with his fiancee.  I am not sure what Jeff is up to.

We did get in a walk yesterday at the CI, a bit slippery as the snow on the roads was beginning to melt.  We stopped in the library to pick up a book and say hi to the librarian, Deborah, then went home for lunch, toasted cheese with the homemade sourdough wheat and Evie's vegetable soup.  As usual, we watched both The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert, as we ate lunch, what has become our routine for the past couple of years.

And last night, we went out to a bar/restaurant we wanted to visit called The Pad, 19 miles from here, just outside Kennedy, NY, on RT. 394.  It looked much better from the road!  Inside, it was paneled, but not particularly charming and not very crowded on a Friday night, a bad sign I think.  Interestingly, most of the patrons in the bar were drinking Busch or Keystone beer, not quite the beers of choice in most of the bars with patronize.  We sat at the bar and though the locals were friendly, we were not able to strike up a conversation.  I ordered the fish fry (a bit cold) and Evie had a burger and fries, both excellent, so we were not unhappy with the food, just the ambiance.  We won't go back.  We ended the evening watching the movie Contagion, not much of a pick me upper, but a pretty realistic look at what could happen when a virus gets out of control.  It made us want to stay away from people, from their coughs, their touch, from anything they have touched.  Paranoia is setting in.  We did have a great dessert, as you can see, the Gateau Basque which Evie made.

It's now 9:30 in the morning and Evie's already in the kitchen making a new cabbage soup recipe, this one having ketchup, tomato paste, whole tomatoes and veggies in it as well as the cabbage, which you cook slowly for two hours, just in time for lunch.

A nice walk, perhaps at Long Point, Asian glazed chicken thighs with rice for dinner, perhaps a mannie, and a couple of good NFL games make for a perfect Saturday.