A Wintry Sunday Morning On Lake Chautauqua (Cross Country Skiing Long Point State Park)

7:30

Like clock work, I woke at 5:25, thought about getting up but slept in till 6:00, far out, an extra thirty five minutes .  As I look out the windows, I can see long, narrow swatches of dark gray on the vast whiteness of the lake, areas where the wind has blown off the snow I assume, not open water.  I have felt the last couple of days like we are living in the Arctic Ocean, with snow on and off every day, swirling, windy, cold, and a vast whiteness.  We are starting our fifth winter here at the lake and I cannot remember having so many sustained days of snow, waking up every morning to a forecast of 1-3 inches of snow or more.

Cross Country Skiing For The First Time This Winter

I finally broke down yesterday and got all of our winter toys out of the attic, something I don't usually do until January.  Down came the cross country skis, the snow shoes, the ski boots, and the poles.  We had decided to drive again to the end of Lakeside Drive and then cross country ski, for me, snow shoe for Evie through Long Point Park, out to the end of Long Point, then back to our car.  For once, the trails appeared used, by both skiers and snow shoes.  We met three or four groups of people, enjoying the winter morning, some with dogs, one group carrying their lap dog in the back pack as he was tuckered out from the hike.  It was bitter cold skiing out to the tip of Long Point, a strong southerly wind blowing across Bemus Bay on our faces.  About half way out, both of wished we were back at the car, not wanting to have to fight our way back through snow and wind to the car, but we persevered (we had no choice) and after an hour and a half, we were back, happy to be warm, with our adventure over.  We both must have been tired because we usually enjoy our excursions but this time it seemed too much like work.  A mind or body thing?  I think mind.

Our Home From Long Point During A Snow Storm

Man and Dog

Vegetable soup and tuna wraps for lunch and then a relaxing afternoon, the major  decision, what to have for  dinner.  We watched some TV, bits and pieces of some college basketball games, a movie with Steve Carrell, about the end of the world, which Evie enjoyed while decorating the last of the Christmas cookies, but I skipped to finish my book, SOUL CIRCUS, the third gritty urban Washington D.C, novel, by George Pelecanos.  Neither one of us felt much like cooking, thought about going somewhere for dinner or a drink, perhaps Webbs, but it was snowing hard enough to discourage that idea.  So we relaxed, with some wine and appetizers, and listened to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion,  a radio program we have listened to on Saturday nights for the past twenty years.  It's like listening to nostalgia wrapped into the present.  No big meal for dinner, leftover chicken and noodles, with salad and broccoli, satisfying.  We finally stuck with a movie, The Shipping News, set in Newfoundland, with Kevin Spacey, Judy Dench, and Julianne Moore.  I would give it a B-, not the greatest or most compelling film but worth sitting down to for a couple of hours on a snowy, wintry night.