Another Thin Skin of Ice

Winter Kayaking

Woodlawn in March

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Bird Walking on Thin Ice

Up at 7:30, to an orange sky again, a sun struggling to rise above the horizon.  And, the first twenty yards of the lake is motionless, frozen, with birds walking  on it, the rest wrinkled and open.  Where it's frozen we were kayaking yesterday and I am sure by the time we get outside, it will have melted.  It's 34 degrees outside, so I am surprised the lake froze at all.  Today is supposed to be partly cloudy, with showers in the afternoon and warm, high in the 50.

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day, so nice I didn't even mind that it was still winter, that spring is still ten days away.  High's in the low 50's, a slight breeze, we got out the kayaks and went for a long paddle down to Snug's and back.  A few fishing boats were out and we talked to a neighbor, in Magnolia, we had met last fall when we kayaked.  He had just had a new house built though he lived in Ashville.  This was the first winter he and his wife spent on the lake instead of their Ashville home, as their kids are now in college.  A nice guy though I forgot to ask his name.  He talked about how nice it was to be so isolated and alone on the lake in the winter, just like us.

We did some work in the yard, mostly raking and picking up lots of twigs, and Evie even got out a lawn chair, sat outside in the yard, enjoyed the sun and played Words With Friends.  I also turned over the sludge that washed up on Leonard's bank, some of it four or five inches deep, thick and disgusting, filled with worms,  so we are going to try and use it as compost in our bushes.  Let's hope it doesn't have much salt left in it.  If we don't pick it up, it will wash back into the lake at the first storm, when the waves wash it  into the lake.

We had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and brussel sprouts for dinner, a typical Sunday meal, very satisfying and watched a mediocre movie, The Lincoln Lawyer.  I had read the book a  few months ago and could hardly remember what happened. Not worth watching unless you have nothing to do.

Morning Joe just interviewed Jonathan Haidt, the UVA professor of social psychology who wrote one of my favorite works of non fiction, The Happiness Hypothesis.  One of my students worked with him the past two years and sent me the rough draft of THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, WHY GOOD PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED BY POLITICS AND RELIGION,  via email last spring.  The book has just been published, and I assume it's going to be pretty hot as it combines politics and religion, with brain research, delving into how we make choices.  I do know that Haidt started as a liberal when he began to write this, about the time Obama was elected but in the course of the book, he became much more of a conservative though I assume he would still endorse Obama over the Three Stooges, Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich.  I have yet to read the book, just a few parts of it, though I will get to it eventually.

Yoga today.  Ohio University made the NCAA and plays Michigan.  I hope the rain holds off till this afternoon.  More episodes of ER tonight.  Yippee.