A Taste of Winter

6:38

7:00

7:20

Up  at 6:30 to streaks of light, a choppy lake, a white lawn, as it snowed about an inch over night, frosting both the lawns and rhododendrons in front of our house.  I don't imagine it will stay for long, once the day warms up, however, at the moment it's 23º, the sun is out,  blindingly bright at the moment, before it hides behind a cloud.  Perhaps a good day for a walk or hike, depending on our mood and the weather.  We do like hiking in snow covered woods though it will be quite wet because of the melting snow.

7:50

Yesterday morning was a bore for me, as I had to drive to Erie, to get my Honda Pilot serviced, getting it ready as  it can be for our drive to Kansas City for Thanksgiving.  It's a forty five minute ride to the dealer, then a two hour wait, nothing seriously wrong but lots of rust underneath and the fear that something might go wrong.  Both the gas and brake lines are starting to rust out, according to the mechanic, though for the moment, they seem to hold but...and that's the rub.  Do I wait until something goes or deal with it before?  We both hope to put off getting a new car because we do not know what we want, a high mileage sedan like a Prius or Ford Fusion Hybrid, or a larger, four wheel drive vehicle like a Subaru Outback or Toyota Highlander, both more expensive then the sedan and worse mileage. Do we need a four wheel drive or not is another question we need to answer.  As you can see, we are not ready to make a decision so I think we will soldier on with our 2000 Accord, 2004 Honda Pilot.

After the dealer, I did some shopping at Wegman's in Erie, a great store, much larger than the one in Lakewood, and had lunch there before driving back to the lake.  When I got back, Evie had done some raking in the yard, filled a garbage can with leaves and twigs and she made some of our favorite cookies, Lemon Scented Ginger Almond cookies, just perfect with a cup of Turkish tea, which we had mid afternoon.

Bufflehead Ducks Arrive

Around 4:00, my buddy Stan Marshaus called, needing a ride to Westfield, to pick up his car.  He hit a deer last week and it needed work.  So I drove him to Westfield, dropped him off and returned home just in time for wine, Castello cheese (brie and blue), as we sat and watched it begin to first sleet, then snow.  For dinner, we had left over pizza along with some Mercimek Corba (Lentil Soup), and we watched The Good Wife and Masters of Sex, and we are now all caught up with our shows.

I am about half way through Richard Russo's first novel, MOHAWK.  What a different world Mohawk (the late 1960's in a decaying New England town) is from  David Downing's novels set in Nazi Germany.  The problems in Mohawk, mostly personal, seem insignificant compared to those suffered by the Jews and Germans during WWII.  I want to scream at the characters in MOHAWK, "Get over it," but THEIR problems, no matter how minor, always take on great importance because they are THEIRS, not someone else's.

It looks like a meat loaf, mashed potato and gravy, and brussel sprouts night.  I cannot wait!