A Star Filled Dawn, A Toasty Seven Below

6:52

Venus and Selene (Greek Moon Goddess)  at 6:42

Crescent Moon at 6:41

Up at 6:00, to the planet Venus shining bright, high above Tom's Point, a sickle of a moon far below, an amazing vista this early.  In fact,  the sky is filled with stars this early, a rare sight on a winter morning here at Lake Chautauqua. It's 7 below, and it looks like another clear, frigid day at the lake.

Yesterday was a strange day; we did not think we should go outside for any length of time, which left out either hiking or cross country skiing though it looked, from inside, like a glorious day, sunny with blue skies.  So we relaxed a good part of the morning, then I downloaded a yoga App recommended to me by Julia Lescynski called Yoga Studio. It's cheap, $2.95 and has various lessons for beginner, intermediate and advanced, some 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour.  I did  two of the 15 minute classes just to see what it was like and I enjoyed it.  I set Evie's old iPad on the floor, turned on some cool tunes for background, and it was easy to follow, though she moved a bit fast from one pose to another.  Perhaps in the longer sessions she will hold some of the poses longer.  Anyways, it worked out well, so on days when I don't have yoga, I have an easy class at my finger tips.

We had an early lunch, of vegetables soup and fish tacos, using the tilapia from a couple of nights ago.  Lots of cabbage, sour cream, and hot sauce, and you have a great fish taco.  At 1:15, I drove off to the Dipson Theater in Lakewood to see the movie Lone Survivor since I had just finished the book.  Evie stayed home, doesn't much like shoot em up movies like this, and it was, at least 20-30 minutes of the four Seals battling the Taliban.  I was pleasantly surprised at how faithful it was to the book, with just a few added scenes, to make it more dramatic, thrilling, for the viewer. It would be hard not to sympathize with the Seals, and admire the Pashtuan's who harbor Luttrell and save his life.  I don't usually like a movie after I have read the book but this one was an exception.

When I got home, we decided to put together an eggplant pasta sauce, so Evie cut and fried up some eggplant and I retrieved a jar of Rao's Pasta sauce out of our pantry.  Once the eggplant was done, we merely poured the sauce over the eggplant, added salt and pepper and red pepper as needed, and we had a great sauce, perhaps not as good as the first time we made it in Istanbul (with fresh tomatoes), some forty years ago but still good.

Once dinner was made, we relaxed during the dusk, with a glass of wine and listened to Fox Five because there had been a wonderful satire last night by Jon Stewart on one of Fox's host, Sean Hannity and we wanted to hear if they had anything to say.  Fox news is fodder for much of the Stewart and Colbert shows' satire; it's the kind that just keeps giving.  And believe it or not, despite the 5º temperatures, a number of fishermen were out, starting around 4:30, no doubt having just gotten off work.

5:30 PM Die Hards

The eggplant tomato sauce on pasta was really tasty, the eggplant cooked just perfect, tender, spicy and juicy and we both commented on how much we enjoyed it.  We watched the fairly new Captain Phillips before the State of the Union and were both impressed by the film maker, by Tom Hanks, the amazing tension created even though we knew Hanks would survive.  And the Seals came off once again as spectacularly skilled and confident.  Wow, two Seal movies in one day.  The State of the Union was the same old, and listened wondering how anyone could disagree with what the President said, education and health care for everyone, no more wars, working to get nuclear weapons out of Iran, job creation but all we had to do was turn on Fox News afterwards to find out all he said was wrong.  I could not wait to get back to my book, to life in Great Britain, clear and simple, none of the polarity of today.  As I went upstairs, lights from snow mobiles blasted past Long Point, heading towards Mayville, in two below weather, at 10:00 in the evening, fortified perhaps by alcohol.