Up Too Early (Skiing Rails to Trails, Mayville)

Bill Sharp Rails to Trails in Mayville

7:10

Maybe, because I am coming down with a cold, I woke at 5:15, laid in bed hoping to go back to sleep but got up at 5:30, knowing it was not going to happen, alas.  I sound like my Dad who always said he could never sleep, yet he wouldn't get up till 8:00 or so.  It's pitch black in the house, outside, till I turn on the coffee, a light in the kitchen, one in the living room.  A few lights twinkle off towards Bemus, it's 27 degrees outside, and my day begins, with a sniffle and a sneeze.  It's now almost 7:00 and a pinkish glow rises above the shore line, disappearing in the blue, as the day begins.

Yesterday was much milder than earlier in the week, in the low 30's, though the snow remains on the ground.  Around 11:00, we went off to the Bill Sharp Rails to Trails Nature Trail in Mayville, and both of us cross country skiied for around an hour.  The path, because of the warming, gets awfully wet and icy after a mile or two, so we did not go as far as we would have liked.  The rails were groomed by lots of snow mobiles, but so were the low areas, which were wet.

Yesterday was a baking day, as Evie put together some sour dough whole wheat bread, which took various steps, finishing around 4:00.   It's nice to have the house filled with the aroma of baking bread.  Evie also made, at my request, a Gateau Basque, basically a custard between two sugar crusts.  It ends up round, about 10 inches in diameter, an inch high, filled with custard, with a brown top and bottom.  We have yet to eat it, as you are supposed to let it sit for a day, so I am not quite sure yet of the texture.  The crust is very touchy; if it's too warm, it falls apart, too cold and it won't roll out the way you would like.  And we were afraid to flip it, as suggested, so we are waiting for this morning when it's more solid.  I will let you know how it ends up and tastes.  It looks great and I seem to remember eating it when we camped during our summers in Europe.

Dusk from Lake Road in Bemus Point

Around 4:00, we went for another walk along the lake road in Bemus, just as the sun was beginning to set, then stopped at the Seezuhn House for a beer.  Surprisingly, all the bar seats were filled, with the usual locals.  We did see our old neighbor Pete Shore there for the first time in awhile.  He seems to be doing well and had his son with him, from Arizona.  We stayed or about 20 minutes, then headed home.

Seezhurn House at 5:00

Gold Finch at Bird Feeder

For dinner, we had the left over chicken and biscuits and watched MARGIN CALL, a film about the collapse of Wall Street in 2008.  It was much more interesting and intense then I thought and you could feel the fear and panic as the traders and bosses realized that the whole ponzi scheme of Wall Street was beginning to collapse.  And you realize that greed and money trumps all.  Though things were falling apart, their core beliefs(or greed) took over, and they screwed anyone in the end if they could by selling everything they could, knowing that at the end of the day, all stocks would be worthless.  Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons and Stanley Tucci are all believable, as the major players.  The film makes you realize how tenuous the monetary structure is, how little control anyone has over it, and why regulations might help mitigate the damage but never eliminate the possibility, even the inevitability of these collapses, as history of the financial world shows. Well worth watching for both the acting, film making, a close look at Wall Street, how it works or doesn't.  You will come away having more sympathy for Occupy Wall Street.  Say what you like, the brokers are out to get rich, not to make you rich.

Since I finished reading THE ART OF FIELDING which I really enjoyed, I have begun Haruki Murikami's new novel 1Q84, a play on the year 1984, in Japanese, and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.  I have read three other of his novels and he is unlike any others writers I have read, with his combination of both Asian and Western themes.  For example, his earlier novel, NORWEGIAN WOOD(which, by the way, is just opening as a movie), alludes constantly to the West, especially the Beatles song, the title of his book. There is always a woman, unknowable but sexual, often a jazz bar, and a lost, confused protagonist, trying to make sense of things.   There is always something mysterious, unknowable about his characters, and yet, they are believable.  Try him.