A Balmy End of January Morning: Ohio University Bound

A Young Ohio University Bobcat, 1965

A Gloomy But Warm Morning, at 7:24

I was up at 6:00, walked downstairs and thought it seemed warmer than usual, checked the thermometer, 63º inside and 30º outside.  That's a change of 42º from Tuesday morning.  It looks like this warming up will stick around through the weekend, then the cold returns at the beginning of the week.  I can just make out a hint of a shoreline, dark clouds off to the east, no Venus, the Morning Star today.  We are driving to Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, today, for the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the 1963-64 Elite NCAA Final Eight Team. We will be honored tomorrow during the half time of the Ohio University/Toledo game.  It should be fun getting together with my teammates, in fact, we have gotten together at least once a year for the past five or six years.

1963-64 Elite NCAA Final Eight Team

It was warmer yesterday but like many days, it seemed colder, perhaps because of the moisture in the air or the wind, not sure.  Because we are leaving for a weekend in Athens, Ohio, this morning, so we spent a good part of yesterday getting organized for our two day excursion as well as making sure the house was in good order.  I had breakfast with two of the guys, one, Jack, having just gotten back from a couple of weeks in Mexico.  He seemed to hit the best of the beaches as well as ruins, even going up 11,000 feet to the diminishing monarch butterfly preserve.  According to Jack, their habitat both in Mexico and the States is disappearing, thus their threatened status.  They basically live on the rapidly disappearing milkweed here in the States, and a movement is starting to get gardeners as well as farmers to plant patches of milkweed.  I suppose if every home gardener planted some milkweed it would make a difference.  Evie looked up milkweed and there seems to be hundreds of varieties, so I plan on planting some, perhaps down by our  road.

After breakfast, I went to another Thursday yoga class, crowded of course, with three other guys among the students, a rarity.  This seems to be hip opening week, so we were on our backs much of the morning.  We also learned that at the beginning of a new moon, we are less flexible, more tense because of fluid loss, at least according to some Eastern text.  What fluid it might be I have no idea. Didn't want to appear to be a skeptic.

For lunch, I had the leftover eggplant pasta, quite good, then drove in to Jamestown for a doctor's appointment with a dermatologist.  Then, I stopped both at the bank, picked up money for our trip, and at the Tractor Store to pick up sunflower seeds for our hungry birds.  We have gone through 50 pounds so far this winter, starting on our next bag.  The rest of the afternoon we both took it easy, reading and listening to NPR.  I had no mojo, so I did not go out skiing though it could have been good, even on the lake, as a number of snow mobiles have raced by our yard, hopefully making paths for us to cross country ski.  I will have to wait till Monday afternoon I guess.

Dinner, like lunch was leftover schnitzel, brussell sprouts, scalloped potatoes and asparagus, all from Wednesday night.  Thank goodness we both like leftovers, or we would waste a heck of a lot of food. Perhaps it's from our growing up with thrifty parents, who made use of all of their leftovers, part of the generation that grew up during the Depression.  We watched Stewart and Colbert, then some Idol, and went to bed earlier than usual because of our trip to Ohio University.

At the moment, it's 6:45 and I still cannot make out anything out our window, as the cloud cover must be heavy enough to blanket the beginning of dawn, no apricot colored sky this morning, no clear blue skies, no arctic temperatures.  It's now 7:20, five or six guys are out already fishing, enjoying the tropical weather.