Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Four More Inches of Snow, Packing For Our Trip East


Winter I
Winter II
Winter III
Slept in till 6:45, hallelujah, and it's warmer outside, 23º,  and warming up a bit over the next few days. Our car is covered with snow, another day of shoveling.  And I noticed what looks like deer tracks leading up to our back porch, either that or some animal came to visit.

Yesterday was a quiet day, as neither of us had much energy, so we just hung out in the house, reading and watching TV during the day, something we rarely do. After Evie's doctor's appointment, she made the sauce for a baked ziti to take to Beth's while I sat reading Jhumpa Lahiri's well regarded second novel, THE LOWLANDS which I am enjoying, set both in the US and Calcutta, 'the city of dreadful night,' which I spent a couple days in back in 1975, a memorable sojourn, as the underclass slept on sidewalks, lived in streets, the poverty and density of the population overpowering.  I was glad to leave, to take a train to Puri, a town on the Indian Ocean, where I stayed in Ambassador John Galbraith's room (he was 6' 7") or so I was told, in the Great Eastern Railroad Hotel.  For some reason, I still remember the name, the vast beach, the little brown skinned men in bathing suits, hoping to be hired as your life guard if you swam.

Late afternoon, I had to get outside, so I took a walk around the campground, eerily empty except for a couple of workers digging holes with a back hoe and planting twelve foot trees, a strange time of year to be doing it.  I noticed a few snowmobile tracks in the campground, none on the lake yet though I expect some daredevil to be out there this weekend if it does not warm up.  Right now, the lake is a vast, white tundra, with an illusion of safety. I have not heard how thick the ice is yet.  Near the edges, however, it breaks if walked on.
Tree Planting at Camp Chautauqua
For dinner, I had a unhealthy hankering for a chili dog, so Evie got out a couple of Sahleen hot dogs, and we had some chili left from last week and within ten minutes, I had two hot dogs, smothered in chili, with a salad; Evie just had hot dog with a salad.  Comfort food of a sort.  We watched a fairly new film on Netflix, Frances Ha, a quirky but likable comedy, in black and white, about a somewhat awkward twenty seven year olds attempt to make it as a dancer (she's a dancer apprentice) in New York City.  We follow her dance performances (more amusing than aesthetic), moves to different apartments(none her own), loves (unrequited), jobs (boring), travels (less than satisfying), and what seems like her eventual happiness at settling for something less than what she had hoped  for, as  part time choreographer and dance studio secretary. Fragmented, like a series of montages, not everyone will like this film but we found it entertaining and fun.  We also watched an hour of the two hour finale of The Voice before going to bed, tired from having done very little.

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